Gil Shaham - Violin

Violinist Gil Shaham is internationally recognized by audiences and critics alike as one of today’s most virtuosic and engaging classical artists. He is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with celebrated orchestras and conductors, as well as for recital and ensemble appearances on the great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.

A highly regarded soloist around the world, Shaham will play nine violin concertos with top orchestras in the 2008/2009 season. He will begin the season with the Brahms concerto at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on September 11 and later with the Atlanta Symphony and the Montreal Symphony. Other highlights this season include the Stravinsky concerto with the Houston Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, the Khachaturian concerto with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berg concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, and Bolcom’s concerto with the Toronto Symphony. In April, Shaham will tour performances of two Haydn concertos with Sejong.

In addition to his many orchestral engagements Mr. Shaham regularly tours in recital with pianist Akira Eguchi. He has the good fortune to enjoy musical collaboration with his family as well, including his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, his sister pianist Orli Shaham and his brother-in-law, conductor David Robertson. In spring 2007 his dream of bringing together friends and colleagues for chamber music came to fruition in a tour of Brahms programs, culminating in a series of three concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. An encore of this project took place during the spring of 2009.

Another highly anticipated event this season was will be Gil Shaham’s concert marking the centenary after the death of the legendary Spanish violinist and composer Pablo Sarasate. Shaham played the Romantic-era composer’s music with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in the Kaplan Penthouse at New York’s Lincoln Center. This program was broadcast nationally on PBS in its Live from Lincoln Center Series. He then took this program on a tour of Spain where he visited several Spanish cities, including Sarasate’s hometown of Pamplona.

Among his more than two dozen concerto and solo CD’s, are a number of best sellers, appearing on record charts in the US and abroad. These recordings have earned prestigious awards including multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diaposon d’or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Mr. Shaham’s recent recordings have been produced for his own label “Canary Classics” – The Butterfly Lovers / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Singapore Symphony, The Faure Album with Akira Eguchi, the Prokofiev Album with Orli Shaham, “Mozart in Paris”, a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A major with Yefim Bronfman and cellist Truls Mørk, and most recently a recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and David Zinman released in November 2008.

Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel where at the age of 7 he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music and granted annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. That same year he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellerman at Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he has worked with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University.

Gil 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.