Avi Avital Essentials

One listen to any of his recordings, and this obscure-instrument revivalist might just have you breaking out the air-mandolin. In addition to playing works specifically written for that instrument by Vivaldi and Mozart, the Israel-born Avital has also created his own mandolin arrangements of Bach's concertos that have a winning buoyancy. And on the album Between Worlds, he even steps into the realm of polka (in addition to other mandolin-ready folk forms).