| ago.Our live chat interview on Thursday, January 2th at 10 PM was with the violinist, Gil Shaham. Not every violinist can say that they were in the middle of reciting the prologue from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales during an English examination, when they were pulled out to be flown to London to step in for an ailing Itzhak Perlman. Not every violinist could have done so exceedingly well on two days notice that they would bring a London audience to their feet, demanding 4 encores. But Gil Shaham can say that. In 1989, at the age of 18, Gil Shaham did that. This feat earned him international fame as papers all over London and the United States heralded his performance, and ABC's Peter Jennings named him Person of the Week. - CultureRHR: Okay folks I would like to introduce you to our special guest this evening. He is a young violinist that has subsituted for the great Mr. Pearlman and has been seen many television appearances, Mr. Gil Shaham. ShahamGil: Hello! It's nice to be here. Happy New Year and thank you for coming! Jessdsv: Pleased to meet you Mr. Shaham. CultureRHR: Welcome, Mr. Shaham!! We are gald to have you at CultureFinder. Mlon1: Thanks for joining us - Mr. Shaham ShahamGil: Thank you, thank you!! CultureRHR: Mr. Shaham, where are you currently touring? ShahamGil: RHR, I'm in New York right now. BUt, I just came back from a week in Israel and before that a week in Russia. New York is actually where I live...I'm here resting for a couple of days. SHSEPPO: Hello Mr. Shaham. ShahamGil: Hello! Jessdsv: Mr. Shaham, do you ever play for singers? ShahamGil: Jessdsv, I have only once played in Bach duets for violin and voice. But I would love to work more with singers. My next door neighbor is an opera coach so I've played at the sang time with singers across the wall! Jessdsv: I am an opera singer, and love the violin. ShahamGil: Jess - where are you dialing in from? Jessdsv: Near LA ShahamGil: Jess In your opinion, what is the most *famous* opera in the world? Not your favorite...the most famous. I've been asking people this for about 2 years now and I get interesting answers! Jessdsv: Maybe La Boheme, Or Carmen. ShahamGil: I've asked people what they think is the most famous opera...there's no real pattern but in Germany they say its the Magic Flute, in France they say its Carmen, and in Italy they say its Traviatta. Jessdsv: Yes. There are so many operas! It is hard to say which is most famous. CultureRHR: Gil, when did you start to play? ShahamGil: I had my first violin lesson when I was 7 1/2 years old...so I guess that makes it almost 18 years ago! SHSEPPO: Mr. Shaham I especially enjoyed your work in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concertos. ShahamGil: SHSEPPO - thank you! CultureRHR: Gil, you do a spot on the Weather Channel, how did that come about? ShahamGil: Culture - We're not doing it anymore, but I guess it was 2 winters ago that it was the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and myself - we recorded the Four Seasons by Vivaldi. We made a short video about it. And after having done that we were all sitting around in a meeting trying to decide what to do with it and decided to call up the Weather Channel. Who were really sort of gung-ho about the project and ended up being extremely kind and helpful to us. Cigarnose: It's not on the weather channel anymore?:-( CultureRHR: That is so great! You should be in marketing too! Cigarnose: Gil...have you heard the Romances album in its final form yet? ShahamGil: Cigarnose...Yes, I have. Cigarnose: good...I think we shadowed you very well in it ;-) ShahamGil: And, its always great for me to be able to work with Orpheus. Cigarnose: why, thank you, Gil! ;-) When will we have the pleasure of playing with you again? ShahamGil: Cigarnose - do you know any violists LOL Is that you Nardo?!! Cigarnose: hmmmm...I'm not telling! ;-) ShahamGil: Cigarnose - I don't know!! I hope soon!! When are you planning on having us over for cigars again? Cigarnose: I have a Cohiba waiting for you the next time I see you. ShahamGil: Cigarnose - unusually or atypically?!! Cigarnose: the same ;-) atypically for an artist of your calibre ShahamGil: Why was the violist jealous of the harp player? Cigarnose: Why? ShahamGil: Because the harpist only plays pizzicatto and only opens strings. Cigarnose: That's it! No more barking dog for you in the 4 Seasons! ShahamGil: LOL! That's right - you *are* the barking dog from the 4 seasons! Cigarnose: LVB: Mr. Shaham, how did you obtain your stradivarius violin? ShahamGil: LVB - Well, I was very lucky. I knew the previous owner of this violin who was a supporter of the arts in Chicago and he let me play on it for a few years and he's a very generous man and when he wanted to sell the violin he gave me the first option to buy it. Cigarnose: Not bad for a Bronx boy! ShahamGil: This was 5 or 6 years ago. And, at the time it was a big stretch for me to try to buy it, but it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. CultureRHR: Gil, who were your early influences? ShahamGil: Culture - my early influences... I guess when I first came to this country and I was 11 years old, I started taking classes at the pre-college division at the Juilliard School - I was suddenly surrounded by hundreds of incredibly talented kids from all over the world. And...I always say that these are the people I learned most from. Cyberbuby: Mr. Shaham, are you from Israel, perhaps? ShahamGil: Cyberbuby - Yes. I was born here in Illinois..but my parents were both Israeli and I spent the first ten years of my life in Israel (except the very first year). CultureRHR: Gil, tell us about your big break in London subbing for you know who... ShahamGil: Culture - Let's see...I was a senior in High School...in the Bronx... (if you've ever read Archie comics - that was sort of based on the High School I went to) and...I remember somebody came up to the English classroom I was in and said Gil, you have to come down to the principal's office. Of course, my first reaction was "not the principal's office, what have I done" I went downstairs and on the other end of the line was a very desperate London Symphony Orchestra. They were trying to find a replacement violinist for Itzhak Perlman. They must have been desperate, because they called me!! Suddenly I was faced with the option of either going back to study the Canterbury Tales or sipping champagne on the Concorde at 50,000 feet on the way to London! So, after a good half a second of thinking about it...I said Yes! It ended up being sort of a big break for me...besides of course the opportunity to play with London Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas it also got alot of press attention around the world. CultureRHR: So you are first in line to sub for Perlman? That is not bad!! ShahamGil: I don't know that I'm first in line...but at least on that day I was lucky enough to be the first one to be able to play the concerts. CultureRHR: LOL! Well, it can not look bad on a resume. ShahamGil: And..I think still to this day I play some bookings that were made because of that. Cyberbuby: How old were you then, Gil? ShahamGil: Cyber - I was 17. Cyberbuby: Wow a prodigy. CultureRHR: How did you do on that English test you were taking? ShahamGil: Culture - I ended up not taking it that day - so I guess that's good. I think I did about as well as I did on the other ones...which wasn't very well! LOL LVB: But how did they know to call you? ShahamGil: LVB - Ya know...I still to this day have never figured it out. I had played with them before so I suppose they knew me from before. But I'm just assuming they tried a long line of other violinists before they called me. AJDroid: Mr. Shaham - as a last minute sub for Perlman were you expected to play his program? Or was the orchestra expected to play something from your repetoire? Or did you find something in common? ShahamGil: AJDroid - I think what had happened was... Perlman canceled the very first night and he was supposed to play 3 nights of a violin concerto marathon. Cigarnose: No wonder he cancelled! ShahamGil: But luckily for me we ended up doing the Bruch and Sibelius Concertos which I had played not long before and they were I guess kind of in my fingers. AJDroid: Mr. Shaham - Any plans to play in Portland, OR anytime soon? ShahamGil: AJDroid - unfortunately, no. I guess the closest would be Seattle this year. But I have played there in the past and can't wait to play there again soon. SDEastwoo2: Mr. Shaham, have you ever played at a theatre performance or with actors somehow? ShahamGil: SDEastwoo2 - let's see.. I guess the closest I've come is during a Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keeler. But I'm planning to play Stravinsky Soldier's Tale in the next season. SDEastwoo2: In New York or where? ShahamGil: SDEastwoo - I probably shouldn't say anything...cause it's not definite. But, we're talking about doing it in Summer Festivals. Cigarnose: Gil, I heard the Romances album is selling like hotcakes everywhere. ShahamGil: Cigarnose - That's good news! Cigarnose: yessir! ShahamGil: How well do hotcakes sell? Cigarnose: I think it was #3 of all records sold - not just classical. Depends on where you get them, Gil. Cyberbuby: Do you have a favorite composer or composition, Mr. Shaham? ShahamGil: Cyberbuby - I think that's a really difficult question. No...it's sort of like asking "do you have a favorite parent". There's lots of great ones. Maybe I have a special feeling for the Viennese composers - Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Cyberbuby: Have you played Schubert's "Trout"? The quintet. ShahamGil: Cyberbuby - I have some vague memory of sight reading it years ago. But I don't even think I got through the whole piece so I guess the answer really is no. I remember it being really difficult actually. Cyberbuby: Heard Emanuel Ax play it at the 92nd St. Y has a bass part; I used to play bass. Cigarnose: Gil, we will be touring Japan again in a couple of weeks, this time with Maisky. We will miss you. ShahamGil: Cigarnose I'll miss them too! Cigarnose: Not me? ShahamGil: Yes! Nardo - I just saw Misha Maisky in Televiv and he has some new shirts prepared for this tour. Cigarnose: How many? ;-) ShahamGil: Nardo - LOL...I don't know... CultureRHR: Who did you study with at Juilliard? ShahamGil: Culture - I studied with 3 teachers...with Dorothy DeLay, with Jens Ellerman and with Hyo Kang. They were all wonderful. Cyberbuby: They had a good student! CultureRHR: That is quite a trio. Cyberbuby: Is anyone else in your family musically talented, Mr. S.? ShahamGil: Cyberbuby - My younger sister Orli is a pianist. And... infinitely more talented. And actually we are going to tour together this year. We just made a disc for DG of violin/piano works by Dvorak. And... we'll play about 12 cities in the US at the end of Feb, beginning of March. Cyberbuby: You're also obviously a good brother. How old is Orli? ShahamGil: Cyber - Orli is 20. AJDroid: Was your sister with you on Prairie Home Companion? ShahamGil: AJDroid - Yes..one time we went together on the show. AJDroid: My wife and I enjoyed that performance immensly! Please give your sister our regards. ShahamGil: AJDroid - Wow! Thank you..I will! CultureRHR: That is wonderful. Where will this tour take you? ShahamGil: Culture - ya know...I don't remember all the dates. But we'll go as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska and also various cities on the East Coast - NY, Toronto, Seattle, Aspen... CultureRHR: I hope you will play in New York too! Cyberbuby: Any in the Midwest? SDEastwoo2: When in Toronto? ShahamGil: Cyberbuby - I'll check..hang on one sec! CultureRHR: LOL Gil you can send me your schedule and I will e-mail it to anyone who e-mails me for it. Then they can know the where and how to get tickets. SDEastwoo2: And put it in the calendar here too. ShahamGil: We'll play Bowling Green, Ohio as well as Akron, Ohio. Wyoming... I'll be in Toronto, if I remember, on the 13th of March. Cyberbuby: My granddaughter's birthdayand that's the closest city to me! May be a good sign. ShahamGil: Culture...I'll send my schedule along! CultureRHR: Great! I can get it from your agent if that is easier for you. SDEastwoo2: If you forget we'll be disappointed :o( CultureRHR: Okay folks, if you e-mail me a request, I will send you his tour schedule. ShahamGil: Culture - either way. Actually my agent probably has a much more updated list than I do! CultureRHR: Great! Sounds like a plan. He is very charming, your agent. CultureRHR: Are your parents musicians Gil? ShahamGil: My parents were both scientists..who were also music lovers. AJDroid: Gil - who were your heros/idols (musical or otherwise)? ShahamGil: AJDroid - it's hard to say because there were so many. If I just kept to the world of violin I remember being 12 years old and listening to nothing but recordings of Jascha Heisetz, and then when I was 13, I listened to David Oistrakh. Then as the years went by I was into recordings of Kreisler Szeryng and soooo many others that it would be impossible to list them all now. LVB: Gil...do you have a girlfriend? If yes, is she a famous musician like you? ShahamGil: LVB - Yes, she's a violinist and her name is Adele Anthony. For a while...she was sitting right next to me... Cigarnose: ...until I got here... LVB: How sweet! ShahamGil: I went to Columbia and I was thinking about majoring in Math. But this was around the time when I started buying my fiddle and so I did a little math of my own and promptly dropped out and started working. As much as I can...whenever I can. As much as I could I should say, whenever I could. CultureRHR: What advice do you give to young musicians, just starting out today? ShahamGil: Culture - The best thing anybody can do is sort of stop and think about why they're doing what they're doing and why they want to be playing a violin, or being a musician. Because if you end up becoming a musician those are questions that you have to ask yourself all thru your life. Cyberbuby: This's been delightful; Mr. Shaham, "bracha v' hatzlacha"! Thanks, CultureR. Bye, all. ShahamGil: Same to you cyberbuby! Thank you very much! AJDroid: Mr. Shaham - got 2 go, thanks for your time. Happy New Year to you (and the room)! ShahamGil: The last CD that we released was Romances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Which we had a great time making and I hope people enjoyed listening to it. SDEastwoo2: Mr. Shaham, do you prefer small "chamber" concerts to larger orchestras? ShahamGil: SDEastwoo2 - I like all concerts! It depends...if it's a small chamber concert and there's a reception afterwards there's usually more food left :-) SDEastwoo2: OK :o) Cigarnose: not with me around! CultureRHR: LOL! SDEastwoo2: But what about playing? Any preferences/reasons? ShahamGil: SDEastwoo - It's kind of hard for me to say.. It depends on the people and it depends on the the hall and the evening and on the weather.... there's so many factors that go into a concert. SDEastwoo2: The weather...for the crowd's mood, you mean? ShahamGil: SDEastwoo - yes, and for the musician's moods! Anytime you put 2000 people into a room there's a whole host of factors that affect what's going to happen. Landbrat: Mr. Shaham, how would you describe a career in music? Is it worth it ? ShahamGil: Landbrat - I don't really think there is a formula. For each person it's a different thing. For each person it means something else. I think I've been very lucky in my life that people have put up with me. And so I have an outlet for my sort of weird musical imagination. Kimmelane: What motivated you to pursue this career, Mr. Shaham? ShahamGil: Kimmelane - my parents were big music lovers so there was always music in the house. Ever since I was very young it just seemed like fun. There came a point when I realized that's the thing I enjoy doing most. Kimmelane: Getting paid to do what you love must be a wonderful thing! CultureRHR: Well folks, our time is up. I hope you all will join me in thanking Mr. Shaham for joining us. You have been a wonderul guest Gil. I hope you will join us again soon. Cigarnose: ::::::::clapping:::::::::::: SDEastwoo2: Thank you very much :o) Mr. Shaham ShahamGil: Well, Thank You very much!! This was really fun! Kimmelane: It was a pleasure, Mr. Shaham. I wish I had been able to come online sooner so I could have enjoyed more of your chat! ShahamGil: Thank you, me too!! Cigarnose: See you, Gil - don't forget, I have a good stogie waiting for you. ShahamGil: Good night everyone! CultureRHR: Good night Mr. Shaham. More about Mr. Shaham: Mr. Shaham is no stranger to television exposure. His first appearance was on Good Morning America; then came Nova, the documentary Child's Play: Prodigies and Possibilities and a documentary Shaham and his Violin. His latest TV appearances have included the Charlie Rose Show, Today, The Weather Channel, and Extra. Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. In 1973 he moved with his parents to Israel where at age 7 he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and was immediately granted annual scholarships by the American-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1980, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he was heard by Isaac Stern, Nathan Milstein, Henryk Szeryng and Jamie Laredo. At age 10, in 1981, he made a spectacular debut with the Jerusalem Symphony conducted by Alexander Schneider which was followed in 1982 by his debut with the Israel Philharmonic. In 1980, a year before his official debut, he had become a student of Dorothy Delay and Jens Ellerman in Aspen and in 1982, after taking first prize in Israel's Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard where, to this day, he continues to work with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. After his two orchestral appearances in Israel the music world became abuzz with the news of his prodigious talents, but his parents and teachers wisely put breaks on his being over-exposed too soon. Gradually, while in his teens, he began playing some of the most prestigious engagements with such American orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, to mention only a few of the top American orchestras, and abroad with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony, l' Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the La Scala Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, Japan's NHK Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic and Japan Philharmonic, among many others. He has appeared in recital or with orchestra from Oslo to Buenos Aires, from Tokyo to Tel Aviv, and from Istanbul to Winnipeg. Among the many world-renown conductors with whom he has made music are Giuseppe Sinopoli, Zubin Mehta, Wolfgang Sawallisch Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt, Andres Previn, to mention only a few. With Maestro Sinopoli he has made recordings of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Paganini and Saint-Saens concertos, while he has solo discs devoted to music by Schumann, Richard Strauss, Elgar, Ravel, Cesar Franck, Saint-Saens, Kreisler, Paganini and Saraste, His most recent recordings have all been best-sellers which have hit the top-ten list on the Billboard charts; they were Paganini for Two in which he is teamed with guitarist Goran Sollscher; the Samuel Barber and Erich Maria Korngold concertos, which he recorded with the London Symphony under the guidance of Andre Previn; and Vivaldi's Four Seasons which he recorded with the Orpheus Orchestra. This recording has been on the Billboard top-ten list since its release 31 weeks | |
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