Avi Avital (born October 19, 1978) is an Israeli mandolinist who began performing with local orchestras by age eight. He studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and later at the Cesare Pollini Conservatory in Padua, Italy. In 2012 he released his debut album Bach, and in 2013 became the first mandolinist signed to Deutsche Grammophon. He performs regularly at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Berlin Philharmonie, and has expanded the mandolin’s classical repertoire by commissioning dozens of new works.

Avital is widely credited with re-establishing the mandolin as a serious solo concert instrument in classical music, having commissioned or arranged roughly 90 new works for it and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Avital