Alon Sariel
The versatile musician Alon Sariel is active as a mandolinist, lutenist, and conductor. He is a former member of Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Sariel has performed in over a thousand concerts in more than 35 countries, and he has a growing recording catalog. In 2022, he issued the album Plucked Bach, offering Bach's cello suites on mandolin, lute, Baroque guitar, and the oud.
Sariel was born on May 11, 1986, in Beersheba, Israel. He took up the mandolin at age eight, studying at the Beersheba Conservatory. His interest in the instrument was furthered when he spent a year in southern California with his family and was exposed to American bluegrass mandolin players. Back in Israel, he continued at the Beersheba Conservatory, taking a wide variety of courses that included not only mandolin but also piano, percussion, music theory, and music literature. Sariel went on to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, studying mandolin with Motti Shmitt and conducting with Evgeny Tsirlin. He graduated in 2009 after racking up most of the school's top honors. In 2007, he joined a touring unit of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, playing mandolin solos and soaking up Barenboim's conducting techniques. He remained with the orchestra until 2012. Sariel began studies of the lute at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2008 and continued to study the instruments from 2010 to 2015 at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, studying with Hans-Michael Koch and also taking conducting classes with Paul Weigold and Martin Brauß. In 2014, Sariel made his recording debut with the album An Englishman in New York, appearing on both mandolin and lute with Joe Brent in music by John Dowland. Two years later, he joined guitarist Izhar Elias and fortepianist Michael Tsalka on the album Paisiello in Vienna.
Sariel has appeared as a mandolin soloist and as a conductor with most of Israel's major orchestras, and he is a frequent guest at European festivals, including the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and Carinthischer Sommer in Austria and York Early Music in England. After winning several English competitions, he has performed frequently in that country. In 2015, in Hannover (where he has taken up residence), he founded the chamber group Concerto Foscari. His chamber and vocal music collaborators are a world-class group, including soprano Emma Kirkby, countertenor Andreas Scholl, accordionist and banjo player Stian Carstensen, and clarinetist David Krakauer. Sariel is committed to contemporary music and has commissioned and performed more than ten new works for the mandolin. His recordings include Telemandolin (2017, on the mandolin), Rembrandt! (2019, on the lute), and Plucked Bach (2022, on a variety of stringed instruments, including the oud).
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
12 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Plucked Bach II
Alon Sariel, Francesca Benetti
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 26 Jan 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Plucked Bach
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 24 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Plucked Bach - Cello Suites
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 24 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sounds Familiar
Chamber Music - Released by GWK Records on 18 Mar 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sharkiya
Alon Sariel, Izhar Elias, Michael Tsalka
Classical - Released by Israel Music Institute on 1 Jul 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An Englishman in New York
Classical - Released by Orlando Records on 1 Dec 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Pratum musicum longe amoenissimum
Classical - Released by Querstand on 7 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Music for Mandolin & Fortepiano
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on 3 Jan 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pratum musicum longe amoenissim: Canson Englesa & Altra Canson Englesa
Classical - Released by Querstand on 10 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006: VI. Bourrée
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 29 Mar 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harpsichord Music by Israeli Composers
Marina Minkin, Alon Sariel, Hanan Feinstein
Classical - Released by Albany Records on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harpsichord Music - Alexander, H. / Braun, Y. / Brener, U. / Smorgonsky, D. / Bar-Am, B. / Natra, S.
Marina Minkin, Drora Bruck, Alon Sariel, Hanan Feinstein
Classical - Released by Albany on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo