Avi Avital

»Avital’s seemingly effortless virtuosity and his almost improvisational flights of fancy in this obviously fabulous collaboration simply put you in a good mood« – Gramophone on Concertos The classical mandolin lost much of its popularity during the 19th century as public taste shifted and more powerful orchestral instruments were developed. Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital helped restore it to international prominence, revitalizing its repertoire and establishing it as a fixture in concert life. »I see it as my mission to fill the historical gap in mandolin literature so that there will be no shortage of compositions for this instrument in the future,« he explains. With breathtaking virtuosity and powerful expressiveness, Avital presents a repertoire that includes dazzling arrangements of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, as well as his own original transcriptions and over 100 new commissioned works from composers such as David Bruce, Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, and Giovanni Sollima. In 2010, Avital became the first mandolin player ever to be nominated for a Grammy, in the category of »Best Instrumental Soloist« for his recording of Avner Dorman's Mandolin Concerto. Today, he regularly performs at major music festivals as well as venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, London's Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Leipzig's Gewandhaus, Salzburg's Mozarteum, Vienna's Konzerthaus, and the Concert Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing. He has performed with leading orchestras worldwide and formed close partnerships with other artists who share his openness to new musical paths, including harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, pianist Omer Klein, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, and percussionist Itamar Doari. In 2023, he founded the ensemble Between Worlds to explore the (folk) music traditions of various regions, a project that began with a residency at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. In 2012, Avital signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and shortly thereafter, his first album for the yellow label was released: harpsichord and violin concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach in Avital's own arrangements. The subsequent album, Between Worlds (2014), showcased Avital's interest in new repertoire with an anthology of works inspired by folk music, including compositions by Bartók, Bloch, de Falla, Piazzolla, Tsintsadze, and Villa-Lobos. The 2015 album Vivaldi features the Mandolin Concerto and transcriptions of other concertos by the composer—including »Summer« from The Four Seasons—as well as the Venetian folk song »La biondina in gondoleta,« sung by Juan Diego Flórez. The 2017 album Avital Meets Avital brings together the fruits of a creative dialogue between Avi Avital and his namesake, the Israeli-American jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader Omer Avital. Most of the works were composed specifically for this album and draw on various musical traditions, such as those from North Africa, Andalusia, and the Balkan countries. Avital's 2020 album Art of the Mandolin marked a significant expansion of his discography, as it is his first collection consisting exclusively of original compositions for mandolin. Featuring music by Vivaldi, Domenico Scarlatti, Beethoven, Henze, and Ben-Haim, as well as premiere recordings of new commissioned works by David Bruce and Giovanni Sollima, the album spans three centuries of classical mandolin repertoire and highlights its quality and breadth. In 2023, the album Concertos followed, featuring Avital with the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and its conductor and co-founder Giovanni Antonini. They present mandolin concertos by Barbella, Paisiello, and Hummel alongside Avital's own adaptations of works by J. S. Bach (with Antonini as recorder soloist) and Vivaldi (thanks to modern technology, Avital plays all four parts of the piece). The album was awarded an Opus Klassik for Concerto Recording of the Year. With his new recording project, Avital creates musical landscapes of three geographical regions, demonstrating how folk music traditions inspired classical composers from the past and present. Together with his Between Worlds Ensemble, Marina Heredia, Alessia Tondo, and the Georgian choir Ensemble Rustavi, he has recorded three digital EPs—ITALY, IBERIA, and BLACK SEA—as well as the album Song of the Birds, which combines a multifaceted selection of music from all three regions. ITALY was released in May 2025, IBERIA a month later, BLACK SEA will be released in July, and Song of the Birds in August. Recent concert highlights include a concert at Cadogan Hall in London with bandolinist Hamilton de Holanda and the São Paulo Chamber Soloists; the Opus Klassik Recital at Kühlhaus Berlin; a California tour with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; a tour of France with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire; a European tour with soprano Nuria Rial and the Venice Baroque Orchestra; and a Yellow Lounge event in Chemnitz with pianist Marie Awadis. His future engagements include the premiere of Fazil Say's Mandolin Concerto at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival with the Festival Orchestra and Nil Venditti (July 12/13, 2025), as well as works by Vivaldi and Avner Dorman with flutist Andrea Griminelli and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra at the Festival Pietrasanta in Concerto (July 26). Avital and the Between Worlds Ensemble will then tour with the repertoire from Song of the Birds, with concerts at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (July 31, August 2/4), Menuhin Festival, Gstaad (August 5), Viva Musica! Festival, Bratislava (August 8), BBC Proms, London (September 9), Enescu Festival, Bucharest (September 12), Bydgoszcz Music Festival (September 14), and Alte Oper Nights, Frankfurt (October 10/11). Avi Avital was born in 1978 in the city of Beersheba (Be’er Sheva) on the edge of the Negev Desert in southern Israel. He began playing the mandolin at the age of eight and soon became a member of the youth mandolin orchestra founded by Russian-born violinist Simcha Nathanson. Nathanson's charismatic teaching and his use of violin transcriptions left a deep impression on the young Avi. »He taught me music,« Avital reports. »The instrument itself is not the decisive factor for me.« After attending the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Avital went to Italy and studied the historical mandolin repertoire with Ugo Orlandi at the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua. However, in his search for his own artistic identity, he soon broke with tradition. Encounters with other musical directions and genres—from bluegrass and jazz to world music—and projects with his mentor, the great Klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman, paved the way for his development into a mandolin pioneer. Avital's career then took off after he became the first mandolin player ever to win the Israeli Aviv Competition in 2007 (intended for young musicians on the cusp of a professional career), and subsequently began performing around the globe. 6/2025