Avi Avital: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Other than bluegrass virtuosos like Ricky Skaggs, players of the mandolin don’t often get taken very seriously. But a young Israeli musician named Avi Avital is trying to change that. He’s not a bluegrass star; instead, his mandolin sings with the sounds of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ernest Bloch and contemporary composers like Avner Dorman. Avital’s recording of a mandolin concerto by Dorman gave the instrument a little boost in 2010, when Avital became the first mandolinist to be nominated for a Grammy