Audience favourite Gil Shaham performs Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with conductor Pinchas Zukerman on June 12-13
May 22, 2003 -
Ottawa, Canada -- Violinist Gil Shaham, internationally recognized
by audiences and noted critics as one of today's most virtuosic
and engaging classical artists, will perform Tchaikovsky's
monumental Violin Concerto in D with the National Arts Centre
Orchestra led by Music Director Pinchas Zukerman on Thursday, June 12
and Friday, June 13 at 20:00 at the NAC's Southam Hall. In
addition, Zukerman will continue his Brahms cycle with the NAC
Orchestra leading the Serenade No 1 in D major, a robust
symphonic work in six movements. These concerts are sponsored by the
Casino de Lac-Leamy.
There will be free Pre-Concert Talks in French both nights
beginning at 19:00 led by Montreal Music Critic François
Tousignant of Le Devoir. Tousignant has titled his talk "Le
merveilleux monde des cordes" (The wonderful world of strings.)
This will be the fourth appearance at the NAC by Gil Shaham, and
he is a favourite of Ottawa audiences. His debut was at age 19 in
1991 performing the same Tchaikovsky Concerto. He returned in 1995
for Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and then again in 1998 in
recital. His recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto joins his
recordings of other concertos by Mendelssohn, Bruch, Paganini,
Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius with Giuseppe Sinopoli
leading the Philharmonia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic;
Wieniawski's Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and Sarasate's
"Zigeunerweisen" with Lawrence Foster and the London Symphony. His
solo discs are devoted to music by Schumann, Richard Strauss, Elgar,
Ravel, Franck, Kreisler, Paganini, Saint-Saëns and Sarasate (for
Deutsche Grammophon). He won a Grammy Award in 1999 for his recital
album "American Scenes" with André Previn at the piano.
Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971, Gil Shaham moved in
1973 with his parents to Israel where at the age of 7 he began violin
studies with Samuel Bernstein and was immediately granted annual
scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, 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.
He plays the 1699 "Countess Polignac" Stradivarius.
These concerts mark the first with NAC Orchestra Music Director
Pinchas Zukerman since April. He returns to the NAC from two weeks in
Japan giving concerts and master classes at the prestigious Miyazaki
Festival. On his way back from Japan, he and NAC Orchestra principal
cello Amanda Forsyth will be performing a fundraising concert with
the Vancouver Symphony on June 6.
Tickets for these final Ovation Series concerts of the season on
June 12 and 13 are on sale now at $26.50, $43.50 and $54.50, with box
seats at $68.00 (GST and Facility Fee included) at the NAC Box Office
(Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00), and through Ticketmaster
(with surcharges) at 613-755-1111. Ticketmaster may also be accessed
through the NAC's website at www.nac-cna.ca.
Half-price tickets for students in all sections of the hall are on
sale in person at the NAC Box Office upon presentation of a valid
student ID card.
