Avi Avital
mandolin

“...Avital’s playing, which can be defined as “everything you never dreamt a mandolin could do,” was truly breathtaking in virtuosity and dedication. He chose a 2002 piece by the Japanese composer Kuwahara to display the unbounded variety of his mandolin – a unique instrument – as echoing as a violin, which in his hands altered the colors of sounds like a kaleidoscope, dancing to the composer’s inventory of sound, hypnotizing and amusing...”

Noam Ben Ze’ev, Haaretz Daily, April 6, 2006

27-year old Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital was recently awarded the precious "Doris and Mori Arkin Prize for Mandolin, the Aviv Competitions 2007." He has played as a soloist with important orchestras and Baroque ensembles, including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv, The Orchestra Cantelli di Milano, the Baroque Ensembles Arion and Fantazyas (Italy), the New Israeli Opera, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, Orchestra "I Pomeriggi Musicali" (Italy), the Beer-Sheva Symphonietta, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Jerusalem Music Academy. He has played under the baton of distinguished conductors such as Mastislav Rostropovitch, Asher Fish, Phillip Antremont, Roberto Balconi, Andrew Lawrence-King and Oskar Gershonzon.

Avital has performed widely in Israel, Europe, USA and the Far East. His festival appearances include the 1st International Rondella Festival 2004 (The Philippines), “Les Muséiques 2005”, directed by Gideon Kremer, (Switzerland), Ravenna Festival 2004, directed by Riccardo Muti (Italy), the 4th international EGM plucked strings Festival (Germany), and the "San Francisco Festival of the Mandolin 2006".

Avi Avital dedicates a large portion of his musical activity to performing and creating new music. He has played over 25 premieres of mandolin pieces by contemporary composers such as Ramon Santus, Leon Schidlowsky, Claudio Lugo, Yehezkel Braun, Abel Ehrlich, Zvi Avni and others. He is often involved with a variety of performing arts - Contemporary Dance, Theatre, Video art and Electronic Music.

Avital is a member of traditional and contemporary chamber ensembles with whom he recorded many albums. Those include the Kerman Mandolin Quartet, Three Plucked Strings (mandolin, guitar and harpsichord), Kaprizma Ensemble (Israel), Dissonanzen Ensemble (Italy) and David Orlowsky’s Klezmorim Quartet (Germany). Since 2004 he has performed regularly with the renowned clarinetist Giora Feidman, with whom he recently played in the International Youth Day, Köln, in the presence of the Pope Benedict the 16th. He is a member of Giora Feidman’s Sextet with whom he recently recorded a CD of traditional music. His playing can be heard in the Israeli Classical Music radio Kol Hamusica, in RAI3 Italy, MDR in Germany and at the WQXR in New York, among others.

Among the numerous awards he won are the first prize of the international competition for Plucked Strings “Città di Voghera” (Italy), the first prizes of the “Giovani Talenti” (Italy), the Tzvi Rotenberg National String Instruments competition (Israel), the Paul Ben-Haim National competition (Israel), the Sharon Tavor – Pintz competition for Soloists (Israel) and the Edna Sarny competitions (Israel). He has been awarded scholarships from the America – Israel Cultural Foundation and from the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Avi Avital is a graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy and Conservatorio Cesare Pollini of Padove under the tutelage of Moti Shmit and Ugo Orlandi. He has given lectures and master classes at the Stanford University, California; Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan; the Rubin Music Academy in Jerusalem; the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, the University of the Philippines in Manila and the University of Torino.

Visit Avi Avital's website...

photo credits: Avi Avital, Elda Papa