Gil Shaham

Gil Shaham
Birth name Gil Shaham
Born (1971-02-19) February 19, 1971
Urbana, Illinois
Origin American
Genres Classical
Occupation(s) violinist
Instruments Violin
Years active 1981–
Labels Canary Classics
Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics
Notable instruments
"Comtesse de Polignac", 1699 Stradivarius violin

Gil Shaham (born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Jewish descent.

Biography

Gil Shaham (Hebrew: גיל שחם) was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his parents, Israeli scientists, were on an academic fellowship at the University of Illinois. His father Jacob was an astrophysicist,[1] and his mother, Meira Diskin, was a cytogeneticist. His sister is the pianist Orli Shaham. He is a graduate of the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York. The family returned to Jerusalem when Gil was two. At the age of seven, Shaham began taking violin lessons from Samuel Bernstein at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and received annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.[2]

In 1981, Gil Shaham made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israelic Philharmonic while he was studying with Haim Taub. Later that year, he attended Aspen Music School in Colorado, studying with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellermann.[3] Later in 1982 after taking first place in Israel’s Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard. He has also studied at Columbia University.[4]

Shaham is married to the Australian-born violinist Adele Anthony. They have three children, Elijah, Ella Mei and Simon. Gil Shaham currently lives in New York City[5] with his family.

Music career

At age 10, Shaham debuted as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony, conducted by the violinist Alexander Schneider. Less than a year later Shaham performed with Israel's foremost orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, which was conducted by Zubin Mehta. At age 11, in 1982, Shaham won first prize in the Claremont Competition and was admitted to the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. In addition, both he and his younger sister, the pianist Orli Shaham, attended Columbia University.

Shaham's career took off in 1989 when he was called upon to replace an ailing Itzhak Perlman for a series of concerts with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra. Taking time out from his studies at the Horace Mann School (where he was a senior), he flew to London at short notice,[6] then performed the Bruch and Sibelius violin concertos.

In 1990 Shaham received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1992 he was awarded the Premio Internazionale of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

Shaham has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.

Shaham plays a Stradivarius violin from the "long pattern" period, the "Comtesse de Polignac" of 1699. It was offered to Shaham on loan, in 1989, by the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.

Discography

Awards

References

  1. Obituary for Jacob Shaham, Columbia Record, Vol. 20, No. 26, 28 April 1995.
  2. "Gil Shaham Biography". Gilshaham.com. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  3. "Gil Shaham Biography". GilShaham.com. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  4. "Gil Shaham Biograpgy". GilShaham.com. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Gil Shaham » Biography". gilshaham.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  6. Los Angeles Times
  7. 1 2 3 "MusicalAmerica - Instrumentalist of the Year 2012". www.musicalamerica.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.