Avigail was born in Jerusalem in 1988. She began piano lessons at three, but when a violin teacher started instructing in George (South Africa) when she was eight, she decided to include strings in her repertoire.

At the age of 12, after completing her Grade 7 piano exam with distinction, violin became her main instrument and she gave up piano.

From 2000 to 2007 she studied with Prof. Jack de Wet in Cape Town, during which time she was the winner of the strings category in the Absa National Youth Competition in 2002, 2004 and 2005. At present she studies violin with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Julliard in New York.

Her brother, Ammiel Issaschar Bushakevitz, was born in Jerusalem in 1986 and began playing piano at the age of five. He passed his BMus degree cum laude in 2008, receiving the highest average of all BMus graduates at Pretoria University. He also possesses three performers licentiates from Unisa; two for solo piano and one for vocal accompaniment. He passed all three licentiates cum laude.

Ammiel has appeared as soloist with every professional orchestra in South Africa, including the Cape Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. He has also performed as a pianist in European centres such as Milan, Turin, Leipzig, Zurich and Vienna.

In 2008 Ammiel won the Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship for Performers. It was the first time since the scholarship’s inception in 1899 that it was awarded for vocal accompaniment. Other competitions he has won include the Musicon National Piano Competition (2004), the Philip H Moore National Music Competition (2007), the Lionel Bowman Beethoven Competition of Pretoria University (2007) and the ATKV Muziq Competition’s piano category (2007).

Bursaries and awards include the the DAAD Scholarship for Artists, the Bill Venter/FAK Bursary, the Pretorium Trust Bursary (three times), the Pretorium Trust Postgraduate Bursary, the FAK Senior Music Award (twice), the SAMRO Undergraduate Bursary (twice), the Isaac Greenberg Scholarship for Jewish Students, the Du Toit/Van Tonder Award, the Gideon Roos/Esther Mentz Award, the UP General Study Scholarship and the SAMRO/Unisa/Brenda Rein Scholarship.

Ammiel is currently studying under Prof. Phillip Moll and Prof. Hanns-Martin Schreiber at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany.