Avital has commissioned over 100 works for the mandolin and recently added two new concertos for mandolin and symphony orchestra: Jennifer Higdon’s Mandolin Concerto (2021) was premiered in June 2021 by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Urbański and will have US performances with the Chicago Philharmonic, Mobile Symphony and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. The Mandolin Concerto composed for him by Giovanni Sollima was premiered in January 2020 with RAI Torino/Bancroft and will receive its North American premiere with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Other concertos include Anna Clyne, David Bruce and Avner Dorman.

Highlights of the 2021-22 season include performances with Les Violins de Roy, a return to the Wigmore Hall with Arcangelo, and a tour of Germany with Il Pomo d’Oro performing a programme of Neapolitan music. His recent engagements include Il Giardiano Armonico, Chicago Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, BBC Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Zurich Tonhalle, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de Lyon, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Israel Philharmonic and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra working with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Osmo Vänskä, Yutaka Sado, Jonathan Cohen, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Nicholas McGegan, Omer Meir Wellber, Ton Koopman and Giovanni Antonini.

Avital collaborates with musicians across many genres including Ksenija Sidorova, Giovanni Sollima, Mahan Esfahani, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Alice Sara Ott, Andreas Scholl, Dover Quartet, Danish String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Omer Klein, Omer Avital, actress Martina Gedeck and Georgian puppet theatre, Budrugana Gagra. His versatility has led to features as “Portrait Artist” at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, BOZAR in Brussels and the Dortmund Konzerthaus (Zeitinsel) and he is a regular presence at major festivals such as Aspen, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Ravenna, MISA Shanghai, Cheltenham, Verbier and Tsinandali.

An exclusive Deutsche Grammophone artist, his sixth album for the label “The Art of the Mandolin” has been received with high praise and top reviews in The Times, Independent, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine as well as the international press. This follows recordings of solo Bach (2019), Avital meets Avital (2017) with oud/bassist Omer Avital, ECHO Klassik Award winning Vivaldi (2015), an album of Avital’s own transcriptions of Bach concertos and Between Worlds (2014), a cross-generic chamber collection exploring the nexus between classical and traditional music.

Born in Be’er Sheva in southern Israel, Avital began learning the mandolin at the age of eight and soon joined the flourishing mandolin youth orchestra founded and directed by his charismatic teacher, Russian-born violinist Simcha Nathanson. He studied at the Jerusalem Music Academy and the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua with Ugo Orlandi. Winner of Israel’s prestigious Aviv Competition in 2007, Avital is the first mandolinist in the history of the competition to be so honoured. He plays on a mandolin made by Israeli luthier Arik Kerman.

2021 / 2022