“...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
Avi Avital - classical mandolin player
28-year old Israeli mandolinist, and Italy based, 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 Juilliard School of Music in New York.
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