Avri Levitan

Violist Avri Levitan was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1973, and commenced his musical journey at the age of five. His musical education began at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, under the tutelage of Prof. Chaim Taub, and then led him to the Conservatoire de Paris. During his formative years, Avri Levitan had the privilege of studying under the mentorship of Pinchas Zukerman, Pnina Salzman, Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, and Ivry Gitlis. These mentors played a pivotal role in shaping his musical identity.

He made his solo debut at the age of 21, alongside the Israeli Symphony Orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Throughout his musical journey, Levitan performed on international stages such as the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, the Seoul Art Centre, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, and the Stockholm Nybrokajen Hall, among others.

Avri Levitan performed at renowned music festivals worldwide, including the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, as well as the Båstad and Gotland Chamber Music Festivals in Sweden, the Seoul International Music Festival in Korea, and the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, France.

In 2009, his collaboration with the Parnassus Piano Trio on a recording featuring Peter Vasks’s Piano Quartet has been nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

The narrative of Avri Levitan's life was captured on film by artist Douglas Gordon in the production titled "K.426 – A Journey by Train" (2009). The film chronicled Levitan's and violinist Roy Shiloah's train journey from Berlin to Warsaw, culminating in their performance of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante at the National Philharmonic Hall. It received international acclaim, with screenings at museums, galleries, and festivals across major global cities such as London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, Toronto, and Venice. The performance featured in the film was nominated nomination for the Royal Philharmonic Award in 2012.

Beyond his role as a performer, Avri Levitan devoted himself to nurturing the next generation of musicians. At the age of 25, he became a dedicated viola and chamber music teacher. In 2008, he assumed the position of Professor and Music Director of the string program at CIEC La Rioja in Spain, and from 2010 to 2018, he held the position of Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón (CSMA).

Levitan conducted master classes in at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts (mdw), where he is a faculty member since 2019, the Royal College of Music in London, the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, among others. Furthermore, he actively participated as a jury member in numerous national and international music competitions, spanning Israel, Germany, Poland, and Austria.

Throughout his illustrious teaching career, Avri Levitan conceived a pioneering concept aimed at revolutionizing music education for future generations of musicians. Musethica, an organization founded by Levitan in 2012 in Saragossa, Spain, strives to integrate more concert practice into music education. Young musicians collaborate with their teachers to perform a wide range of concerts, with a remarkable 85% of these performances taking place in social institutions. The overarching objective of Musethica is to incorporate this model into master's programs at music institutions, and the organization has since expanded its reach to 12 countries. It collaborates with prestigious institutions such as the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña in Barcelona (ESMUC), the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Paris, and the Central Conservatory in Beijing.

In recognition of its contribution to music education, Musethica’s International Chamber Music Festivals in Saragossa and Berlin received the support from respectively the Spanish and German UNESCO Commissions, who took up the festival’s patronage on several occasions between 2018 and 2023.