Dazzled by a fantasy by Luys de Narváez, Ariel Abramovich decided – being still a teenager – to dedicate exclusively to the lute and vihuela repertoire of the 16th century, a decision he has maintained to this day without any major regrets. In 1996 he moved to Switzerland to study with his teacher and mentor, Hopkinson Smith, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Later, he will visit Eugène Ferré in France, who will offer him a very special view of the instrument and its music.
In 1998, together with José Hernández-Pastor, he founded the duo “El Cortesano”, a musical project dedicated to the repertoire of the Spanish vihuelistas. In 2008 he undertook another duo project with the British tenor John Potter, revisiting the literature of English “Lute songs”. In 2011, they founded – together with Anna Maria Friman and Jacob Heringman – “Alternative History”. They recorded for ECM a first album, “Secret History”, released in 2017. In 2015 ECM released the quartet’s second recording, “Amores Pasados,” for which musicians such as Tony Banks (Genesis), Sting or John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) contributed with unpublished works and/or written especially for this project.
He founded in 2013, together with soprano María Cristina Kiehr, the duo “Armonía Concertada”, dedicated to Italian and Iberian literature for voice and plucked strings of the 16th century. Together with Jacob Heringman – also a Renaissance specialist – she shares a project dedicated to intabulations for lutes and vihuelas. Together they recorded in 2014 the album “Cifras Imaginarias”, published in 2017, released by Arcana.
He is a member of the ensemble “Da Tempera Velha”, dedicated to Medieval and early Renaissance Castilian repertoire. She also shares, at present, duo projects with the French soprano Perrine Devillers and the Argentine tenor Jonatan Alvarado.