Avner Strauss

Avner Strauss (Hebrew: אבנר שטראוס‎‎) (born 1954 in Jerusalem, Israel) is an Israeli music producer, musician, guitarist singer/songwriter and poet. He has also written books and music for children.

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.

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.

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