Gil Shaham, violin
Orli Shaham, piano
Location: Shriver Hall
SHCS’s 60th anniversary season opens with Grammy-winning Gil Shaham, “among the most inspired violinists of his generation” (The Guardian), and “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) Orli Shaham. The siblings and star soloists join forces for a rare and illuminating duo-recital. Together, they perform works by Clara and Robert Schumann, and their close friends Johannes Brahms and Amanda Maier.
Gil Shaham is "a virtuoso and a player of deeply intense sincerity." —The New York Times
"Stylish intelligence and pianistic refinement distinguishes Orli Shaham." —Gramophone
About the sponsor
Florence Clarke Gann (1909-1995) was known as “Mity” because she was as small as a “mite.” The moniker never fit. She had irrepressible energy and an extraordinary love for life. She had a quest for knowledge and enjoyed lively intellectual debate. She loved music, art, good books, and, at age 85, she was still working on her tennis game. Mity’s love for music and her piano were important aspects of her life. She played chamber music and was still playing a few weeks before her death. She used to say, “Music is one of the things that always makes me feel good.” Mity’s legacy is surely one of love for life and for all the beautiful and interesting things in it. She is remembered by this gift of a concert in her memory made in 1996 by her family and friends.
Drs. Reiko T. and Yuan C. ("Ed") Lee, faculty in The Johns Hopkins University Department of Biology endowed this annual concert in 2005. Biochemists and amateur string players, the Lees have been subscribers since SHCS's first season. The Lee Fund supports concerts by the world's greatest string players. The first concert supported by this gift was the 2005-06 appearance by Pinchas Zukerman and was dedicated to Reiko's father, Tomotake Takasaka, Professor of Agricultural Engineering at National Taiwan University and an avid self-taught amateur string player. He was also one of the first musicians to bring Western music to Taiwan. He held weekly gatherings of chamber music lovers at his home and it was at one of these that Reiko and Ed, who played viola, met. They came to the U.S. in 1958, earning their Ph.D.s in biochemistry at the University of Iowa. After three years at U.C. Berkeley, they arrived in Baltimore in 1965 to start their Hopkins-and Shriver Hall Concert Series-careers.
Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award-winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to championing these solo works, he will join his long time duo partner pianist Akira Eguchi in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony as well as multi-year residencies with the Orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart and Singapore. With orchestra, Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartok, Berg, Korngold, Prokofiev, among many others.
Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers and many more. His most recent recording in the series 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2, including Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2, was nominated for a Grammy Award. His latest recording of Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights was released in 2021 and also nominated for a Grammy.
Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, 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 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took the first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard and 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 Prize. In 2012, he was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children. His website is gilshaham.com.
“His virtuosity is breathtaking . . . .”—The Telegraph
Orli Shaham
A consummate musician recognized for her grace, subtlety and brilliance, Orli Shaham has established an impressive international reputation as one of today’s most gifted pianists, in demand for her prodigious skills and admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire. The New York Times called her a “brilliant pianist” and The Chicago Tribune referred to her as “a first-rate Mozartean.” She has performed with most of the major orchestras in the United States and with many ensembles across five continents, given recitals on stages from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House, and appeared at music festivals around the world.
Shaham’s 2024-2025 concert season included performances of concertos written for her by David Robertson with Utah Symphony and by Steven Mackey at Tanglewood, as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto with her brother, violinist Gil Shaham. Chamber recitals across the country include Dumbarton Oaks, Music at Menlo, La Jolla, and more.
Recent performance highlights include Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, a piano concerto by John Adams, with the Finnish Radio Symphony; Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Pacific Symphony; a tour with Brandenburg State Orchestra; and festival appearances at Sun Valley, Chautauqua, Bowdoin, and Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.
Shaham is the artistic director, host, and featured performer for Pacific Symphony’s chamber series Café Ludwig, a position she has held since 2007. She was artist-in-residence at Vancouver Symphony (USA) in 2022-2024.
In 2024, she released the final volumes of the complete piano sonatas by Mozart. The entire sonata cycle, along with her recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos K.453 and K.491 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, received high critical acclaim.
Shaham’s discography includes her acclaimed solo album, “Brahms Inspired”, and her performance of John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music with the pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2014, she released “American Grace”, featuring Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her discography includes over a dozen titles on Deutsche Gramophone, Sony, Canary Classics and other labels.
Orli Shaham is on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School, and she has served on the juries of both the Cliburn and Honens international piano competitions. She is a major presence on public radio coast to coast as co-host and creative for NPR’s From the Top series, as former host of America’s Music Festivals, and as creator and host of Dial-a-Musician. She is regularly featured on the popular music education platform Tonebase, including a 22-part series on the music by Karen Tanaka, masterclasses on Mozart’s piano sonatas, and a lecture-performance about Clara Schumann.
Shaham is Artistic Director of the interactive children’s concert series Bach Yard, which she founded in 2010, and she is chair of the Board of Trustees of Kaufman Music Center. In addition to her musical education at The Juilliard School, she holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and pursued a master’s degree in musicology from Columbia. She is winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Her website is orlishaham.com.
"She [combines] a crisp keyboard touch with an uncommonly nuanced approach to tone and phrase." —Chicago Tribune
