In Upbeat to 2016-17, Mandolin Virtuoso Avi Avital Debuts at Hollywood Bowl with LA Philharmonic; New Season Includes New DG Recording, West Coast Tour with Dover Quartet
Avi Avital, the “explosively charismatic” (New York Times) mandolinist who is enthusiastically recharting the territory of his instrument, makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl on September 15 in the closing weeks of the famed venue’s summer music series, performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons under the baton of André de Ridder. The concert serves as an upbeat to a stellar season that also features a West Coast tour with the Dover Quartet; a debut with the Atlanta Symphony; a host of other Vivaldi concerto performances coupled with Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto; and a new Deutsche Grammophon release in the spring, the fruit of the mandolinist’s latest cross-genre collaborative project “Avital meets Avital” with celebrated Israeli jazz bassist Omer Avital (no relation). In support of the album, recorded this August in Berlin and to be released in early March 2017, the pair will tour North and South America (cities and venues to be announced), before continuing with dates in Switzerland and Germany. Of his 2016-17 season, Avital says, “This upcoming season again contains milestones for myself as a musician and for my instrument. I am continuing to cross items off my dream list, and a major aspiration on that list is playing with the LA Philharmonic. I’m eager to get to the Hollywood Bowl and present my mandolin to the audience there.”
Avital’s debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with Vivaldi’s complete Four Seasons follows his last DG recording, the ECHO Klassik Award-winning Vivaldi, recorded with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and including the second concerto in the set, “Summer.” Avital and the Venetian orchestra embarked on a South American tour of material from that album this past spring, and he reunites with the group in the upcoming season for a December concert in Milan. When Vivaldi was released, the Boston Globe raved: “Avital and the Venice Baroque Orchestra put the music back into ‘early music,’” and a performance of material from the disc at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall impressed the New York Times as “nothing short of electric.” Click here for a video of Avital playing Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor at WQXR’s Greene Space.
Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto also plays a starring role in Avital’s lineup this season, most prominently as the vehicle for his debut with the Atlanta Symphony, and his many other performances of the Baroque-influenced concerto pair it with concertos by Baroque masters Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. He plays it this season with Kremerata Baltica, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and in five performances with the Israel Philharmonic led by Osmo Vänskä, as well as at the Nomus Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. Avital commissioned the Dorman concerto in 2006, and it has since become the most frequently performed of the more than 90 works, including 15 full-length concertos, which have been written specifically for or commissioned by him. His recording of the piece with New York’s Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010, making Avital the first mandolin soloist in Grammy history to be nominated in a classical category.
Avital’s West Coast tour with the Dover Quartet in February also showcases his passionate commitment to revitalizing the legacy of his instrument by commissioning new music. The program, which also includes music by Bach and twentieth-century Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze, features another piece written especially for the mandolinist, David Bruce’s Cymbeline for mandolin and string quartet. The piece was co-commissioned by the San Diego Symphony and the Metropolis Ensemble, and, since giving its 2013 premiere in San Diego, Avital has played it around the world, including at his 2014 Carnegie Hall debut.
The Boston Globe noted after a performance in Cambridge last year that Avital and his collaborators “play with the freedom of rock or jazz musicians.” That comment proves prescient this season, when the mandolinist joins virtuoso bassist and oud player Omer Avital in a world of original music that spans generations and nations. The two Avitals share much more than a surname: they attended the same conservatory in Jerusalem, with Omer studying jazz and Avi focusing on the classical tradition, and both were born and raised in Israel by Moroccan parents. A stellar quartet, which they co-lead, merges these influences into an electrifying Middle Eastern jazz hybrid, with new music and arrangements by both of them. Click here to see a preview for “Avital meets Avital.”
With his passion for pushing the boundaries of classical music and reaching the widest possible audience, Avital is no stranger to unusual and boundary-defying ventures. That quality was evident in July, when he launched a new experimental project on Instagram called InstaConcerto. Commissioned by him, and composed for mandolin and strings by his longtime collaborator, Slovak-Canadian pianist, conductor and composer Peter Breiner, the five movements of the concerto are each just 15 seconds long, adapted to the (then) constraints of the social media platform. Avital is joined on the project by the Kremerata Baltica orchestra. His Instagram handle is @aviavital, and the first movement of the concerto can be seen here. A single video featuring the full concerto is available now on Avital’s FaceBook and YouTube pages (https://www.facebook.com/aviavital/videos/1228775670519286/ ). As Smithsonian magazine observed, “Perhaps the new format will spur an entire classical music genre. At the very least, it’s a reminder that Instagram can be a platform for more than just a filtered selfie.”
Rounding out the high-energy mandolinist’s 2016-17 season are Baroque concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as a four-stop tour of Japan playing Vivaldi and Paisiello concertos, and a nine-concert series in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra conducted by Paul Dyer. Avital debuted with the ABO in 2014, and returns, as Dyer says, “by overwhelmingly popular demand.” His chamber and recital performances for this season include two recitals with Iranian harpsichord virtuoso Mahan Esfahani in London and Vienna; two duo concerts with guitarist Giampaolo Bandini in Germany and Italy; two recitals with harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss, including one as part of Fort Worth’s Cliburn Concert Series; three concerts in Germany with his “Between Worlds” trio focusing on music from his 2014 DG release of the same name; a performance with the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra at the Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi, Russia; a Wigmore Hall recital in June; performances at the Rheingau and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festivals; and much more.
https://www.instagram.com/aviavital/
https://www.youtube.com/user/aviavital
Avi Avital: Upcoming performances
Sep 1
Sion, Switzerland
Kremerata Baltica
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Bloch: “Nigun” from Baal Shem
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Sep 2
Potsdam, Germany
Kammerakademie Potsdam / Antonella Manacorda
Bach: Mandolin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041
Sep 3
Luckau, Germany
Kammerakademie Potsdam / Antonella Manacorda
Bach: Mandolin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Sep 15
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles Philharmonic / André de Ridder
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Sep 19
Piacenza, Italy
Il Demetrio Ensemble
Sep 25
Berlin, Germany
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Ton Koopman
Hummel: Concerto for Mandolin in G, S28
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Sep 27
Toulouse, France
Toulouse Mandolin Orchestra
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Oct 14
Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker / Jan Willem de Vriend
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Hummel: Concerto for Mandolin in G, S28
Oct 26-Nov 8
Tour with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra / Paul Dyer
Oct 26, 28, 29; Nov 2, 4: Sydney
Nov 5, 6: Melbourne
Nov 8: Brisbane
Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor, RV 356
Paisiello: Mandolin Concerto in E-Flat
Vivaldi: Mandolin Concerto in C, RV 425
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”
Nov 18
Bad Aibling, Germany
Concert with Giampaolo Bandini, guitar
Nov 22
Burghausen, Germany
Kuss Quartet
Dec 1, 3
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony / Laura Jackson
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Vivaldi: Concerto in C Major
Dec 4
Athens, GA
University of Georgia
Recital with Kenneth Weiss
Dec 6
Fayetteville, AR
Walton Arts Center
Dec 11, 13
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin, Two Violins, and Continuo, RV 93
Vivaldi: Sonata in G minor for Mandolin and Continuo, RV 85
Dec 15
London, UK
Performance with Mahan Esfahani
Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor for Mandolin, K 90
Vivaldi: Sonata in G minor for Mandolin, RV 85
Beethoven: Andante Con Variazioni in D for Mandolin and Harpsichord, WoO 44/2
Avital: Kedma for Retuned Mandolin
Avital/Esfahani: Exchange for Gifts
Bach: Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in G, BWV 1019
Dec 21
Milan, Italy
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G, RV 310 (arr. mandolin)
Bach: Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056 (arr. mandolin)
Barbella: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings in D
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (arr. mandolin)
Jan 1
Cologne, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (arr. mandolin)
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052 (arr. mandolin)
Jan 18-20
German “Between Worlds” Tour with Ksenija Sidorova and Itamar Doari
Jan 18: Berlin (Konzerthaus)
Jan 19: Neuss (Zeughaus)
Jan 20: Aalen (Konzertring)
Jan 24, 25, 26, 27 & 29
Tel Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem, Israel
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052 (arr. mandolin)
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (arr. mandolin)
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Jan 28
Tel Aviv, Israel
Chamber music program with members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Feb 2, 3, 4
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Chamber Orchestra / Mayumi Hirasaki
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Vivaldi: Sonata for Two Violins in D minor, RV 63 “La Follia” (arr. Mandolin and Violin by A. Avital)
Vivaldi: Concerto in D for Mandolin (Lute), Two Violins and Continuo, RV 93
Feb 7
Chattanooga, TN
String Theory at the Hunter
With Dover Quartet
Feb 9
Fort Worth, TX
Cliburn Concert Series
Recital with Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord
Feb 11
Toronto, ON, Canada
The Royal Conservatory of Music
With Dover Quartet
Feb 15
Portland, OR
Chamber Music Northwest
Performance with Dover Quartet
Feb 17
San Diego, CA
ArtPower at UCSD
Performance with Dover Quartet
J.S. Bach: Chaconne in D Minor, for solo mandolin
David Bruce: Cymbeline for string quartet and mandolin
Sulkhan Tsintsadze: Six Miniatures for string quartet and mandolin
Feb 18
Eugene, OR
Oregon Bach Festival
Performance with Dover Quartet
Feb 19
Vancouver, BC, Canada
With Dover String Quartet
David Bruce: Cymbeline for string quartet and mandolin
Sulkhan Tsintsadze: Six Miniatures for string quartet and mandolin
Feb 26
Sochi, Russia
Winter International Arts Festival
Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra
TOUR: Avital Meets Avital (March 15-25)
March 15
Calgary, AB, Canada
Mount Royal University
March 25
Washington, DC
Washington Performing Arts
April 21
Nishinomiya, Japan
Hyogo Prefecture Cultural Centre
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Vivaldi: Double Concerto for Mandolin and Recorder in G, RV 532
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Paisiello: Concerto for Mandolin in E-flat
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”
April 22
Toyota City, Japan
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Vivaldi: Double Concerto for Mandolin and Recorder in G, RV 532
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Paisiello: Concerto for Mandolin in E-flat
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”
April 23
Mitaka, Japan
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Vivaldi: Double Concerto for Mandolin and Recorder in G, RV 532
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Paisiello: Concerto for Mandolin in E-flat
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”
April 25
Tokyo, Japan
Hamarikyu Asahi Hall
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Vivaldi: Double Concerto for Mandolin and Recorder in G, RV 532
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin in C, RV 425
Paisiello: Concerto for Mandolin in E-flat
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”
April 28
Novi Sad, Serbia
Nomus Festival
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 (arr. mandolin)
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
Tsintsadze: Miniatures
May 13
Florence, Italy
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Vivaldi: Concerto for Mandolin (Lute) in D, RV 93
Dorman: Concerto for Mandolin and Strings
May 18
Gottingen, Germany
Händel-Festspiele Göttingen
May 19
Pordenone, Italy
Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi
With Giampaolo Bandini, guitar
June 7
Zurich, Switzerland
“Avital Meets Avital”
June 10
Dresden, Germany
Dresdner Philharmonie
“Avital Meets Avital” with orchestra
June 14
Vienna, Austria
Concert with Mahan Esfahani
June 21
Koln, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
“Avital Meets Avital”
June 22
Dortmund, Germany
Dortmund Konzerthaus
“Avital Meets Avital”
June 23
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
June 29
Rheingau, Germany
Rheingau Musik Festival
July 4, 5
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
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© 21C Media Group, August 2016
