Paganini/Saint-Saens: Violin Concertos

Gil Shaham was born in Illinois, USA, in 1971, and grew up in Israel. At the age of seven, he received violin lessons from Samuel Bernstein at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. In 1980 he played for Isaac Stern, Nathan Milstein and Henryk Szeryng, and attended the Aspen Music School in Colorado, studying with Dorothy Delay and Jens Ellerman.

Gil Shaham gave his highly acclaimed debut at the age of ten as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Schneider. Soon thereafter he performed with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1982 he won first prize in the Claremont Competition and was admitted to the Juilliard School in New York as a pupil of Dorothy Delay and Hyo Kang. In 1989 he began studies at Columbia University in New York.

Gil Shaham first came to Europe in 1986, giving a sensational performance at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. During the 1988/89 season, he stepped in at short notice for Itzhak Perlman in a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas at which he performed concertos by Bruch and Sibelius. In 1990 he was awarded the AVERY FISHER CAREER GRANT and in 1992 the PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. A further highlight in his career was his debut recital at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1992. In 1995 he toured Japan with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as giving recitals in Italy. Gil Shaham, who performs on a 1699 Stradivarius, appears regularly with orchestras throughout Europe, Japan and the USA under such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, André Previn and Giuseppe Sinopoli, and participates in the Ravinia, Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals. In 1999 he made his Salzburg Festival debut.

Gil Shaham has recorded exclusively for DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON since 1987.