Avri Levitan

Levitan was born in 1973 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is of Polish descent.{{cite news |date=25 January 2007 |title=Jewish Congregation to present concert of Duo Levitan Feb. 7 |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/116E40ADAB19B100&f=basic |newspaper=The Oak Ridger |accessdate=11 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20220411010152/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/116E40ADAB19B100&f=basic |archivedate=11 April 2022 }}{{cite news |last=Luke |first=Ben |date=15 February 2011 |title=A masterpiece to make the spirit soar - With his film of two Jewish musicians travelling to Poland to play Mozart, Douglas Gordon has created an artwork that is moving, beguiling and utterly exhilarating |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1422684D784F1D88&f=basic |newspaper=Evening Standard |accessdate=11 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20220411044711/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1422684D784F1D88&f=basic |archivedate=11 April 2022 }} His parents introduced him to classical music,{{cite news |last=Chen |first=Nan |date=2 June 2017 |title=Berlin-based program makes classical music more accessible |url=https://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2017-06/02/content_29588382.htm |newspaper=China Daily |accessdate=11 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411012059/https://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2017-06/02/content_29588382.htm |archivedate=11 April 2022 }} and he began taking viola lessons at the age of five. As a youth, he found practicing the viola to be challenging, as he preferred football. He told China Daily, "But when I stopped playing music, after one or two days, I realized that I cannot live without music." In an interview published by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Levitan states that he was inspired, while growing up in Israel, by artists such as Leonard Bernstein, Pnina Salzman, and also Haim Taub, with whom he studied.{{cite web |title=Avri Levitan |url=https://aicf.org/avri-levitan/ |website=American-Israel Cultural Foundation |access-date=8 April 2022}}

Levitan studied at the Rubin Tel Aviv Academy before going on to receive a masters degree from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. Pinchas Zukerman, Michael Tree, and Ivry Gitlis were his advisers while he was a student. In 1994, he performed at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in his first performance with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra.

In 2001, Levitan performed on the viola at the Women's League Hall with Yonatan Zak, who performed on the piano. The Jerusalem Post reviewer Ury Eppstein wrote, "Levitan, young and obviously talented, displayed pure intonation and a warm singing tone, more than one commonly hears from this often pale-sounding instrument. His rendition of Schubert's 'Arpeggione Sonata' was animated and flowing, sensitive to many of the work's subtleties, indicating a remarkable degree of musicality."{{cite news |last=Eppstein |first=Ury |date=13 February 2001 |title=Salute to Rodan |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/110B08D64486EF80&f=basic |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=11 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20220411011320/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/110B08D64486EF80&f=basic |archivedate=11 April 2022 }}

His 2009 album was a BBC Music Magazine Awards nominee, and he also received a 2012 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards nomination.{{Cite web |date=6 February 2013 |title=:: Friedberger Musiksommer :: |url=http://www.friedberger-musiksommer.de/kuenstler_seite_avri_levitan.html |access-date=8 April 2022 |website=archive.ph |archive-date=6 February 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130206194646/http://www.friedberger-musiksommer.de/kuenstler_seite_avri_levitan.html |url-status=dead }} Levitan toured with the Nordic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anu Tali, performing Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei at the Vienna Konzerthaus Großer Saal.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jeunesse.at/programmtickets/programm-details/event/nordic-symphony-orchestra-le.html|title=jeunesse.at Programm Details Nordic Symphony Orchestr|access-date=30 August 2010|archive-date=6 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093106/http://www.jeunesse.at/programmtickets/programm-details/event/nordic-symphony-orchestra-le.html|url-status=dead}}

In 2009, Levitan conceived of Musethica with Carmen Marcuello and launched it in 2012 in Zaragoza, Spain.{{cite news |last=Davis |first=Barry |date=15 October 2015 |title=Music hath power for one and all |url=https://www.jpost.com/magazine/music-hath-power-for-one-and-all-426012 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=7 December 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207112908/https://www.jpost.com/magazine/music-hath-power-for-one-and-all-426012 |archivedate=7 December 2020 }}{{cite news |last=Davis |first=Barry |date=18 July 2014 |title=Something for everyone |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/14FB3729EA5CC1D0&f=basic |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |accessdate=7 December 2020 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20201207112622/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/14FB3729EA5CC1D0&f=basic |archivedate=7 December 2020 }} Musethica merges the words "music" and "aesthetics". According to The Jerusalem Post, "The central tenet of the project is to create a model for gifted music students to perform on a regular basis for different audiences, principally for people who do not typically attend traditional concert halls." Musethica is now also active in Berlin, Germany.{{cite web |title=Avri Levitan |url=https://www.mdw.ac.at/ijh/?PageId=4214 |website=Joseph Haydn Institut für Kammermusik und Neue Musik |access-date=8 April 2022}}

The documentary film k.364, by Douglas Gordon, tells Levitan's story and that of fellow Israeli musician Roi Shiloah.{{Cite news |title=2022 Arts Preview: The Year Ahead in Visual Art |language=en |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/art/2022-arts-preview-the-year-ahead-in-visual-art-3490409 |access-date=8 April 2022}}

k.364 was also produced as a video installation with multiple screens.{{cite book |last1=Houwen |first1=Janna |title=Film and Video Intermediality The Question of Medium Specificity in Contemporary Moving Images |date=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781501320996 |pages=120–125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBLXDgAAQBAJ |access-date=8 April 2022}}

Levitan is Jewish.{{cite news |last=Barnett |first=Laura |author-link=Laura Barnett |date=13 March 2011 |title=Another view on Douglas Gordon's k.364 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/mar/13/another-view-douglas-gordon-k364 |newspaper=The Guardian |accessdate=11 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411050045/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/mar/13/another-view-douglas-gordon-k364 |archivedate=11 April 2022 }} He is married to the Swedish violinist Maria Winiarski, and they have three children.{{Cite web |title=Avri Levitan |url=https://www.musethica.org/avri-levitan |access-date=12 June 2024 |website=Musethica International}}

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Category:1973 births

Category:Living people

Category:Israeli classical violists

Category:Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Musicians from Tel Aviv