He moved to Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg) in 1921, and took piano lessons with Maria Yudina.
[1] His instruction class in composition started in 1923 at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he was taught by, amongst others, Vladimir Shcherbachov.
[2] Arapov oriented himself first of all towards the officially desirable composition style and worked primarily with nationalist elements, mainly restricting his subject matter to Russian folklore.
However, from around 1960, his compositional style started to become more experimental, introducing a more complicated harmonic, rhythmic and sound colour.
Although this later work is generally tonal, the levels of internal discord are higher than previously.