arts & entertainment

Violin Virtuoso

Gil Shaham opens the DSO's classical season with a
world-premiere concerto for violin and orchestra.

I

Suzanne Chessler

learn it as fast as I can.

Contributing Writer

V

iolinist Gil Shaham recently
joined with his sister, pianist
Orli Shaham, to record Nigunim:
Hebrew Melodies (Canary Classics), but
in an upcoming concert with the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra, he will play music
connected to Chinese culture.
During the first weekend in October,
Shaham will be featured in three perfor-
mances to premiere Bright Sheng's Let Fly,
a commissioned world-premiere concerto
for violin and orchestra made possible
with the help of local arts supporters
Stuart and Maxine Frankel.
The piece will be part of a program
under the baton of Music Director
Leonard Slatkin that also spotlights the
symphony playing works by Rimsky-
Korsakov and Ravel.
Shaham, 42, born in the United States
and raised in Israel, has worked with the
DSO many times over the past 20 years.
He talked with the Jewish News about
the new piece, the new recording and
other interests in a phone conversation
from his New York home.

JN: What do you find engaging about
Bright Sheng's new piece?
GS: What I love about the piece is that it

lets the violin sing. I find it to be very beau-
tiful, touching and original. There are lots
of surprises that come up. It's a lot of fun for
me as a violinist because it also uses a lot of
traditional sounds and techniques.
The very opening sounds are like tra-
ditional Chinese mountain songs with
people on one mountain peak reaching
to people on another peak by singing
very loudly — similar to yodeling in
Switzerland. Bright is still making some
small changes to the piece so I'm trying to

JN: What does this performance represent
in terms of your history with the DSO?

GS: I feel so lucky to play with musi-
cians who play on such a high level. When
I come to Detroit, I feel a little bit like
coming home because I have so many
friends inside and outside the orchestra.
This time is really a point of departure
because it's the first time we are playing a
brand-new piece together. That's always
very exciting.
The orchestra commissioned the piece
with the Singapore Symphony and the
BBC Symphony in London.

IN: How did your recent recording come
about?

GS: The inspiration came from a col-
lection of violin and piano music called
Hebrew Melodies that was published by
a friend of ours, Eric Wen. Eric was my
teacher when I was a teenager, and he's an
amazing man of music and very passion-
ate about Jewish music and culture.
Some pieces on the recording are based
on Jewish folklore, and I remember my
grandparents humming these tunes around
the house when I was a kid. We included
John Williams' soundtrack from Schindler's
List because we felt it became an instant
classic and captured Jewish music.
We also included a new piece, Nigunim
by Avner Dorman, who came up with a
masterpiece for us. There's something very
soulful and direct about all this music and
something that we find gripping.

IN: How do you go about commissioning
music?

GS: These things tend to grow over a
few years and come about organically. I
knew Avner's parents in Israel. His father
is a musician. Orli, people at the 92nd

Street Y in New York City and
I were the co-commissioners of
Avner's piece.
Although I had never played
Avner's music before, we thought
this would be a perfect fit. We
were thrilled when he accepted.
This piece had a great vibe to it
from the beginning.

Violinist Gil Shaham recently recorded a CD,
composed of Hebrew melodies, with his sister,
pianist Orli Shaham.

JN: How is the experience of working
with your sister?

GS: When it comes to making music, ifs
very easy from my point of view. We have
similar musical tastes and values. We'll look
at a phrase and come up with ways of play-
ing it that are basically the same. We treasure
every moment we have together. When we
get to make music together, we get to travel
together and spend time with each other.

JN: Do you also perform with your
wife (Australian-born violinist Adele
Anthony)?

GS: Yes, and that's a favorite thing to do.
We always loved music and feel very fortu-
nate that we get to do what we love. When
we had our first son about 10 years ago, we
decided to cut down on our work. We're
very lucky to be able to do that. We want
to spend more time with the family (which
now includes three children).

JN: Are your kids being schooled in
instrumental music?

GS: Both my older kids asked for violin
lessons. They have a really wonderful
teacher who comes once a week. My wife
and I try not to interfere and let them do
what makes them happy.

JN: Are you engaged in Jewish activities
beyond music?

GS: There are two organizations I've
been involved with in Israel.

One is the American Israel Cultural
Foundation. When I was a kid in
Jerusalem, this foundation allowed me to
come to New York, borrow a violin and
play some of my first concerts. They help
students get scholarships and experience.
Now, they help many artists in general —
filmmakers, visual artists, dancers.
The other organization is the Israel
Philharmonic, which many people have
said is our greatest ambassador to the out-
side world. I will be in Tel Aviv with the
Israel Philharmonic in December.

JN: Do you have any special projects
coming up?

GS: The next recording project will be
violin concertos written in the 1930s. It's
an excuse to play music that I love, but it's
also something that provokes thought and
discussion.
For this genre, concerto for violin and
orchestra, it's a curious coincidence that
between 1931 and 1939, there was an explo-
sion of repertoire written by the greatest
composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei
Prokofiev and Bela Bartok.
During the time before, composers were
not so inclined to write concertos for vio-
lin and orchestra.

❑

Gil Shaham will perform with the
DSO at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday,
Oct. 4-5, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6,
in Detroit's Orchestra Hall. Prices
start at $13. (313) 576-5111; dso.org .

Jews

00"
mla Nate Bloom
•
Special to the Jewish News

New TV Season

New scripted TV shows with a Jewish

At co-star that premiere this fall include:
On Fox: Dads (debuted Sept.17): Seth

Green, 39, and Giovanni Ribisi play
t business partners and friends whose
difficult dads move into their homes.
Peter Riegert, 66, plays Green's dad.
Green and Riegert's characters are
supposed to be Jewish. Also: Brooklyn
Nine-Nine (debuted Sept.17): Andy
Samberg, 35, stars as an NYPD detec-
tive whose effectiveness is often

masked by his quirky style.
On CBS: The Crazy Ones (debuts
Sept. 26): Robin Williams and Sarah
Michelle Gellar, 36, co-star as a
father and daughter who run an ad
agency. Also co-starring are two very
good-looking Hebrews: Farmington
Hills native James
Wolk, 28, plays an
agency copywriter,
and Amanda Setton,
27, plays an agency
assistant (with a
Jewish-sounding
character name). A
former Gossip Girl
Setton

co-star, Setton is Syrian Jewish on her
father's side and Ashkenazi on her
mother's side. Her wealthy family sup-
ports New York yeshivot. Also on CBS:
Mom (debuted Sept. 23): Created by
Chuck Lorre (Big Bang Theory), 60,
it stars Anna Faris as a single mom/
recovering alcoholic who waitresses
at a fancy Napa Valley restaurant. Her
mother is also in recovery, and her teen
daughter is a handful. The daughter's
boyfriend is played by Spencer Daniels,
20, whose mother is Jewish.
On ABC: The Goldbergs (debuted
Sept. 24): On this 1980s-set sitcom, the
Goldberg family (which is not identi-

fied as Jewish in the pilot but may be
revealed later on) doesn't shy away
from arguing, but underneath they are
a very loving family. Jeff Garlin, 51,
plays the father, with George Segal,
79, playing his father-in-law. Also on
ABC: Back in the Game (debuted Sept.
25): A single mom gets her estranged
father, played by James Caan, 72,
to coach her son's baseball team.
Betrayal (debuts Sept. 29): This show
stars Hannah Ware, 30, as a beauti-
ful photographer who is having an
extramarital affair with a lawyer for a
powerful family. A murder trial com-
plicates things further. Ware, a U.K.

Celebrity Jews on page 55

48 September 26 • 2013

JN