Biography

Recognized by the New York Times for his "exquisitely sensitive playing" and “stunning agility,” GRAMMY nominated mandolinist Avi Avital is one of the world’s most exciting and entrepreneurial young musicians. He is deeply committed to building a fresh legacy for the mandolin through virtuosic performance and exciting new repertoire.

Avi Avital is internationally regarded for his performances at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, KKL Luzern, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing and Wigmore Hall in London. He has appeared as soloist with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and Berliner Symphoniker, under the batons of Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Entremont among others. Avital has collaborated extensively with artists such as clarinetist Giora Feidman, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and trumpeter and composer Frank London. He has also been featured at the Tanglewood, Luzern, Spoleto, and Ravenna summer music festivals.

Avi Avital is the first mandolin player to receive a Grammy nomination in the category “Best Instrumental Soloist” for his recording of Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto with Andrew Cyr and the Metropolis Ensemble. He has won numerous competitions and awards, including Germany’s ECHO Prize for his 2008 recording with the David Orlowsky Trio and the Aviv Competition, the preeminent national competition for Israeli soloists. Avital has released several recordings in the disparate genres of klezmer, baroque, and new classical music, for the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical BMG, and Naxos labels. His live performances have been broadcast on radio stations around the world.

Avi Avital is a graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy and the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini of Padova, Italy.

 

“The mandolin has a marvelous sound when it is played at world class level, and Avi Avital demonstrates this phenomenon superbly in his very first performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in D major. Avital has the gift of transforming the seemingly impossible into reality. His magical fingers arrange, shape, and twist the melodious phrases so evocatively that they take on a vocal quality, sounding even more vibrant than the music many violinists or cellists coax from their instruments.”
Jesko Schulze-Reimpell / Donaukurier

“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