Virtuoso
Gil Shaham hasfun with his
music, both on and offstage.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
iolinist Gil Shaham
plays serious music on
stage and displays a
tongue-in-cheek sense
of humor offstage.
As he prepares for
his Jan. 7-9 appear-
ances with the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra,
Mr. Shaham, 22, has
found the perfe,t lir3 for
himself.
"I spend most of my
time on the road now," said
the instrumentalist, who has
been featured in the television
documentary "Child's Play:
Prodigies and Possibilities." "I
love playing music, and I love
room service. That's really all
I need!"
Since his debut with the
Jerusalem Symphony at age
10, Mr. Shaham has per-
formed with prestigious or-
chestras around the world.
When he steps into the spot-
light in the Motor City, he will
present Tchaikovsky's Violin
Concerto.
"I'm always thrilled to play
Tchaikovsky and recently
recorded the piece on
Deutsche Grammophon," said
Mr. Shaham, happy to make
his second visit to Detroit.
"I think Tchaikovsky is the
most fun. The music is so 'vi-
oliny' I couldn't imagine it be-
ing written for any other
instrument. Audiences seem
to like it, too."
Mr. Shaham ā born in the
United States, raised in Israel
until age 11 and relocated to
New York with his parents,
brother and sister ā recalls
an unusual performance of
the piece he selected for Or-
chestra Hall:
"I was in a taxi coming in
from JFK airport, and we
were stuck in New York
traffic for 30 minutes, not
moving at all. The driver
turned around, looked at
my fiddle case and asked if
I played the violin.
"I said, 'Sure,' and he
asked, in a thick Russian
accent, if I knew the
Tchaikovsky concerto. I
said, 'Sure,' again, and he
requested that I play it for
him since we were just
sitting there. I figured it
never hurts to practice,
and I played the last
movement.
When I finished, he said,
`You know, it's very good, but
the ending could be a little bit
slower.' It was the first time
any cab driver told me to slow
down!"
The pace of Mr. Shaham's
violin achievements has been
anything but slow.
Soon after beginning violin
studies at age 7, he was grant-
ed annual scholarships by the
America-Israel Cultural
Foundation. At 9, he was rec-
ognized by music notables
such as Isaac Stern and
Nathan Milstein and invited
to make his symphony debut.
At 11, chosen first-place
winner in Israel's Claremont
Competition, he became a
scholarship student at Juil-
liard, later graduating from
the Horace Mann School in
New York City. At 15, he was
signed for an exclusive con-
tract with Deutsche Gram-
mophon by a producer
attending one of his concerts
in Germany.
At 18, on a day's notice, he
substituted for an ailing
Itzhak Perlman, who had
been scheduled with the Lon-
don Symphony. This perfor-
mance made him "Person of
the Week" on Peter Jennings'
ABC newscast.
"When I started playing, I
was just fascinated by the
whole thing," recalled Mr.
Shaham, who decided to study
violin to be a little different
from his older brother, then a
piano student.
His appreciation for the
classics grew at home. His fa-
ther, now a physics professor
at Columbia, and his mother,
a genetics researcher, kept a
large record collection and fre-
quently took their children to
concerts.
"Now that I'm older, I can
look back and think the violin
really is the instrument that's
closest to the human voice,"
said Mr. Shaham, whose
brother picked up on his par-
ents' careers by becoming a
microbiologist. Their sister is
establishing herself as a pi-
anist.
Mr. Shaham's own instru-
ment is a 1699 Stradivarius.
"I was very lucky to get it," he
said. "I had it on loan from the
Stradivarius Society in Chica-
go for two or three years and
then started sharing it with
the bank.
"It was owned by the
Countess Polignac, who was
a big arts patron in the court
of Louis XIV. The original
owner apparently was the
mistress of Benjamin
Franklin when he was am-
bassador to France."
Mr. Shaham tries to prac-
tice every day. An avid sports
fan, he finds he can get a lot
of work done during the base-
ball season.
"I turn the game on and
practice in front of the TV," he
said. "With baseball, I can
turn my eyes away, practice
some scales, look back and
know exactly where the game
is. In off-season, practice is
harder. With hockey and bas-
ketball, I have to pay closer at-
tention."
Recent practice has been di-
rected toward a soon-to-be-re-
leased Paganini album.
"I go to Israel about once a
year now," said Mr. Shaham.
"I love Israel," he said. "I
have concerts to perform, and
there are family and friends
there. I have very strong feel-
ings about the Israel Philhar-
monic. It's not only great for
the culture in Israel; it's also
a great ambassador for the na-
tion of Israel."
Gil Shaham's Orchestra
Hall performances with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
are 10:45 a.m. and 8 p.m. Jan.
7; 8:30 p.m. Jan. 8; and3:30
p.m. Jan. 9. For information,
call the DSO, 833-3700. ā
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