Gil Shaham (Violin soloist)
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of the present day. His flawless
technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit makes him
sought-after throughout the world for concert appearances with leading
orchestras and conductors and for recitals and ensemble appearances at the great
concert venues and prestigious festivals.
In the 2010-11 season, Shaham continued his long-term exploration of “Violin
Concertos of the 1930s” which comprises both performances and recordings. In
concert, he performs the Walton concerto with the New York Philharmonic, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony;
Prokofiev’s Second with the National Symphony in Washington and the Orchestre de
Paris, Bartók’s Second with Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in St Petersburg and the
Sinfonieorchester Berlin as well as the Barber and Hartmann concerti with the
Toronto and Chicago Symphonies. The first recording of the “Concertos of the
1930s” project will be released this season on Shaham’s own label, Canary
Classics. The CD features Stravinsky’s concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
the Barber concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Berg’s concerto with the
Dresdner Staatskapelle – all with David Robertson conducting. In other
performances, Shaham has joined Emmanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma for Beethoven’s Triple
Concerto with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a historic concert
celebrating the 120th anniversary of Carnegie Hall; he has performed Mozart’s
Fifth “Turkish” Concerto with Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, and
he performs the Mendelssohn with Jansons and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Forthcoming highlights also include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center’s season-opening concert, all-Bach solo recitals in St Petersburg, Genoa
and Baltimore and a violin and piano repertoire with his sister Orli Shaham, at
New York’s 92nd Street Y, featuring the world premiere of a new work by Avner
Dorman.
Last season Shaham launched the “Violin Concertos of the 1930s” project with
thirty-five performances including appearances with the New York and Los Angeles
Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra.
His solo Bach recitals included performances in Waterloo, London, Istanbul,
Milan, Prague and Cologne and he performed Mozart, Prokofiev and Stravinsky on a
West Coast tour with the St Louis Symphony. Works by Haydn and Mendelssohn that
he performed on tour in Korea, China, and Taiwan with the New York-based
ensemble Sejong were captured on film; this and his other most recent CD, an
album of Sarasate’s Virtuoso Violin Works that also features his wife, the
violinist Adele Anthony and pianist Akira Eguchi, were issued on Canary Classics
in the 2009-2010 season.
Shaman has had the good fortune to collaborate musically with family members
including Adele Anthony, Orli Shaham and his brother-in-law, the conductor David
Robertson. On two occasions (first in 2007 and then again in 2009) the violinist
succeeded in fulfilling his dream of bringing together family, friends, and
colleagues for chamber music; both tours of Brahms programmes culminated in a
series of three concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
Shaham has more than two dozen concerti and solo CDs to his name including
bestsellers that have appeared on record charts in the USA and abroad. These
recordings have earned prestigious awards, including multiple Grammies, a Grand
Prix du Disque, a Diapason d’Or and a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”. His most
recent recordings have been released on the Canary Classics label, which he
founded in 2004; they comprise Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra and David Zinman, The Butterfly Lovers and Tchaikovsky’s Violin
Concerto with the Singapore Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A with Yefim
Bronfman and cellist Truls Mørk, The Prokofiev Album and The Mozart Album in
Paris (both with Orli Shaham) and The Fauré Album with Akira Eguchi and cellist
Brinton Smith.
Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana in Illinois in 1971. He moved with
his parents to Israel where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the
Rubin Academy of Music at the age of seven, receiving annual scholarships from
the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub
in Jerusalem he made his debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel
Philharmonic. That same year he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens
Ellerman in Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize at Israel’s Claremont
Competition, he became a scholarship student at the Juilliard where he worked
with DeLay and Hyo Kang. He also studied at Columbia University.
Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and in 2008 he
received the coveted Avery Fisher Award. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac”
Stradivarius. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele
Anthony, and their two children.
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