Avigail Bushakevitz

Avigail Bushakevitz is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Born in Israel, she grew up in South Africa, where she studied with Jack de Wet. During the past seven years she has lived in Cape Town, New York, Tel Aviv and most recently Berlin. Commencing her studies with a B.Mus at UNISA she left Cape Town in 2007 for New York, where she studied under Sylvia Rosenberg and Lewis Kaplan at the Juilliard School of Music, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 2010 and a Master of Music in 2012. At the Juilliard School she was also employed as teaching assistant in ear training, a position she held for three years. In Tel Aviv she studied with Hagai Shaham as an Artist Diploma student at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. She is pursuing further studies in Berlin at Academy of Music Hanns Eisler with Ulf Wallin.

She is the winner of numerous music competitions in South Africa, including first prize in the UNISA National Strings Competition (2009) and the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition (2012). She was awarded first prize in the UNO competition in Jerusalem in 2013.

Avigail has performed concerti by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruch, as well as Bach and Locatelli with a baroque ensemble, with all the major orchestras in South Africa and regularly gives recital tours in South Africa, performing with her brother Ammiel, a pianist. Their most recent tours include a double concerto with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and extensive recitals and masterclasses right across the country. Together they won first prize in Concurs Internacional Paper de Música de Capellades (2014), with a recital tour of Catalonia in 2015 included in the prize.

In New York, Avigail participated in the Juilliard Chamberfest from 2008 to 2012 and attended the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado for the third time in the summer of 2010. Other summer festivals include the Heifetz International Music Institute (USA), Holland Music Sessions, London Master Classes and Keshet Eilon (Israel). She has received masterclasses from musicians such as Georgy Pauk, Pamela Frank, Shmuel Ashkenazy, Haim Taub and Julian Rachlin.