Life
The Israeli musician who makes the mandolin sing
Israeli musician Avi Avital found fame with an unusual stringed instrument with a rich Jewish history
June 29, 2023 15:33
Israeli musician Avi Avital found fame with an unusual stringed instrument with a rich Jewish history
June 29, 2023 15:33If you want to become a professional classical musician, you might choose violin or piano, cello or flute. Not so for Avi Avital. In the face of all the voices telling him to do otherwise, the Israeli musician chose the humble mandolin.
Had he picked violin, there would have been countless competitions for him to showcase his young talent, an extensive repertoire with which to flex his bow, and virtuosos for him to follow. The challenge presented by the mandolin, however, would prove the making of him.
“That was my fuel for the early stages of my career,” says Avital, who now lives in Hamburg.
“There was no path for a mandolin player who wants to do it professionally. No concert organiser was sitting in the office saying ‘I need a mandolin in my season.’ So I had to carve my own path and be very creative, sincere and proactive. And that became my drive.”
When he dreamt of being signed to a major label, fellow musicians scoffed that Deutsche Grammophon would never take a mandolin player. “I was never offended,” says Avital. “It was just, ‘OK, now I have a challenge.’”
And he succeeded. In 2007, he became the first mandolinist to win Israel’s Aviv Competition for young musicians embarking on a professional career, kickstarting a whirlwind of concerts with leading orchestras at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Berlin Philharmonie.
Mandolin supremo Avi Avital (Photo: Stephan Pramme)
He was the first mandolin player to win a classical Grammy, and in 2012 he realised his dream when he signed to Deutsche Grammophon. “That was the turning point of my career,” he says.
Having grown up with the traditional music of his Moroccan-Jewish parents in Beersheba, Avital picked up the mandolin aged eight and was first introduced to classical music at the local youth mandolin orchestra — and not just the likes of Mozart and Chopin, but to folk songs from around the world.
He would later study at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and learn the instrument’s historic repertoire at the Cesare Pollini Conservatory.
Avital credits his unconventional education with its ethos of music-making with “no right and wrong” for defining his role as a musician. The “curiosity” instilled in him as a child is still there today, he says.
That approach, combined with the mandolin’s versatility (“it’s such a chameleon!” he enthuses), gave him flexibility and paved the way for a fearlessly unrestrained path involving various genres from classical to bluegrass and jazz.
The instrument also has a rich Jewish history, its popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries leading to a ubiquity of mandolin clubs across eastern Europe and in North American Jewish immigrant communities.
