For 300 years, the mandolin has remained the only instrument in the classical music world without a standard form, shape or even sound. It is a collective name for many instruments that have four double strings and tune that way, but are used for different styles of music. And even within these genres, mandolin makers are at liberty to design according to their own creativity.

In music, there is always a motor of evolution, fed by the cycle of three elements: the instrumentalists of their generation, the composers who write for them, and the instrument and its makers. If you had a time machine and you took the score of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 to Mozart’s time for the best pianist of the day to play, they wouldn’t have the technique to cope with it, and the piano would break at some point.

Avi Avital

Avi Avital. Photo © Guy Hecht.

At any given time, instrumentalists will take their technique to the extreme, and that develops the school and method. This inspires composers to challenge them by going one step beyond what they are capable of. This also impacts the instrument...