Biography
Strauss picked up the electric guitar at age 14, and began playing in rock bands in the late 1960s. In 1971 he formed the first Israeli Blues band, and wrote one of the first Israeli Twelve-bar blues; " I got a Telephone, Ain't got no one to call ". Drawn to jazz guitar, Avner went to Boston in 1975 to study at the Berklee College of Music (Composition, graduated in 1978).
Upon returning to Israel in 1978, he began recording and teaching music, and received an appointment as a guitar professor at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. For few years after he was the advisor of the Israeli guitar company "Yuval" and endorsed their guitars giving concerts (1980 -1984) in the frankfurt trade fair "Musikmesse".
Avner Strauss' musical instrument store in Jerusalem ("Effect") in the 1980s was the first Israeli store dedicated solely to guitars and a friendly meeting place and general resource center for any and all musicians who dropped by.
Although he started out as an Avant Garde guitarist in Jerusalem in the late 1960s, today Strauss plays jazz, flamenco, classical, folk, bluegrass and blues guitar.
Avner has published two illustrated story books for young children ("The Porcupine", "Mr. Frog") and one book of poetry for adults ("Distance and Other Measures").
He has produced three audio CDs of original Hebrew songs, including a live CD of Blues in Hebrew, and a CD and animated DVD of his original children's songs.
Avner also produced an instrumental guitar album ("Courtyard", MCI records 1990) that highlights his many different musical facets and playing styles.
During the years Strauss devoted many years to the research of catalogs and collecting whistles, he published hundreds of articles about the subject and about the History of whistle manufacturers in the 19th century and is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject of collecting whistles, some of his articles and samples of his collection which might be the largest known, can be found on the Whistle Museum.
Avner Strauss is the founder of "Strauss Mifaaley Tarbut" and Sal Tarbut Strauss (Hebrew:"סל תרבות שטראוס") that were involved with education for the arts in the educational system in Israel since 1986, producing music, dance, theatre, cinema, literature and plastic arts shows and activities for schools.
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