Blog
Monthly Archive: January 2014
Avi at Carnegie
Posted on Thursday, January 9, 2014
Next week my dear friend and collaborator Avi Avital comes to Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall for his debut Carnegie recital. It's of course a big event for Avi, not least because he's using it as a chance to show of his chops on the Bach Violin Partita No. 2. I'm very honoured that Avi has chosen to include Cymbeline, the piece I wrote for him (mandolin plus string quartet) - joined by the excellent Enso String Quartet.
Avi has been giving a series of short introductory videos via the Carnegie Hall blog, and in this one he talks about his own joy of collaborating - including here, with none other than my other great pal Bridget Kibbey.
Like Avi, I find mandolin+harp a beautiful combination. I remember that Avi and Bridget met for the first time during rehearsals for my opera A Bird in Your Ear at Bard College. One free afternoon, while the stage was being set, Bridget and Avi spent the entire time busking away together. It was such a delightful sound, anyone who walked past just stopped and lost themselves for a while. It's amazing to hear in the video above that the sound of this combination was part of Avi's own childhood - it sounds to me, like he had an exceptional happy one!
