Duo Mantar

Duo Mantar is comprised of two virtuosos, American classical guitarist, Adam Levin, and Israeli Mandolinist, Jacob Reuven. They are described as “visceral and imaginative” and “transcendental and exuberant,”respectively. This novel pairing is rare in the chamber music world, however, the two plucked instruments are complementary and are natural extensions of one another. Levin and Reuven began playing together in 2017 and share a passion for Israeli Music, Hebrew and Jewish songs. Both of them are committed to expanding the repertoire available for mandolin and guitar by actively commissioning today’s most sought after Israeli composers. They have already commissioned four renowned Israeli composers, including Josef Bardanashvili, Ittai Rosenbaum, Oren Lok, and Jan Freidlin. Additionally, they are performing works originally written for mandolin and guitar by Yehezkel Braun and fresh arrangements of traditional Hebrew songs by Marc Lavry and Maurice Ravel. They gave their debut in April 2018 at the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival. In 2018–19, they toured in the United States, Israel and Spain. Their debut recording on Naxos Label (June 2021) reached no.1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Album Chart and they are already planning a record with the Sonatas by Gabriele Leone. They toured the US in fall 2022 and premiered a groundbreaking double concerto by Israeli-American composer, Avner Dorman. They have also commissioned new double concertos by Ittai Rosenbaum and Ziv Cojocaru. In the 2023–24 season they will premiere a series of new commissions based on Piazzolla’s and Vivaldi’s Seasons. In June 2024, the duo will record an album comprised of concerti and chamber works by Avner Dorman. Jacob performs on an Arik Kerman and Adam Levin performs on Aaron Green, Stephan Connor, and Dominique Field classical guitars.