Avi Avital - mandolin

Israeli mandolin player 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 including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, Orchestra "I Pomeriggi Musicali" (Italy), Rostov State Theatre Orchesrea (Russia), Metropolis Ensemble (New York) and many more. He has recorded CDs to labels such Sony Classical, Mode Records (USA), Plaene Records (Germany) and Discantica (Italy). Among the numerous awards he won are the first prize of the international competition for Plucked Strings ?Citt? di Voghera? (Italy), the Paul Ben-Haim National competition (Israel) and the Sharon Tavor ? Pintz competition for Soloists (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 Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, the University of the Philippines in Manila, the Juilliard Scholl of Music in New York. Avi Avital is currently based in Italy and performs widely in Europe, USA and the Far East.