Orli Shaham
2010-2011 Season Biography
A consummate musician recognized for her grace, subtlety and vitality, Orli Shaham has established an impressive international reputation as one of today's most gifted pianists. Hailed by critics on four continents, Ms. Shaham is in demand for her prodigious skills and admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently praised her "wit, passion, delicacy and humor" in a performance with the St. Louis Symphony, and London's Guardian said Ms. Shaham's playing was "perfection" during her recent Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Orli Shaham has performed with the Boston, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego and Utah Symphonies, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestre National de Lyon, Taiwan Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic. A frequent guest at summer festivals, she has performed at Ravinia, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Caramoor, Spoleto and Music Academy of the West.
Ms. Shaham has given recitals in North America, Europe and Asia at such renowned concert halls as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, and the Herkulessaal in Munich, and has worked with many eminent conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, David Robertson, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano and Gerard Schwarz, among others.
Chopin is a big part of Ms. Shaham's 2010-2011 season. She will perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with several orchestras around the United States, and includes this seminal composer's works as a highlight of her recital and chamber programs this season. Orli Shaham's 2010-2011 season also includes a return engagement with the New World Symphony in Miami, performing Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety with her husband David Robertson conducting. Ms. Shaham also continues her role as curator and performer in the Pacific Symphony's chamber music series in Costa Mesa, California, and as guest lecturer for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "Inside Chamber Music" series.
The 2010-2011 season also brings new projects to Orli Shaham's list of artistic accomplishments. She has been recording with her brother, the violinist Gil Shaham, creating a new CD of Jewish Music on the Canary Classics label. The CD's release in April 2011 will coincide with a special recital of the siblings at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The Shahams and the 92nd Street Y have commissioned Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman to write a new work for the duo, which will be featured on the CD and the recital. Inspired by her enthusiasm for introducing young children to the pleasures of music, Orli Shaham is launching Baby Got Bach beginning November 2010, a five-part series of interactive daytime concerts for kids at the hip Greenwich Village nightclub Le Poisson Rouge. Looking ahead to the 2011-2012 season, Ms. Shaham will perform the world premiere of a piano concerto written for her by the acclaimed American composer Steve Mackey.
Ms. Shaham's recent highlights include her Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, her debut with the Malaysian Philharmonic led by Claus Petr Flor and a special appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall where she performed Brahms F minor piano sonata and the F-A-E Sonata with violinist Gil Shaham. Her performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was praised by critic Matthew Guerrieri: "Orli Shaham gave a superb account of the solo piano part, with deep color and fine details." The Tennessean wrote of Ms. Shaham's performance with the Nashville Symphony: "The emotional truth of her artistry is balanced with strong technical abilities." Orli Shaham has returned to Australia again and again in recent seasons, where she has performed a wide variety of composers, including Mozart which she conducts from the keyboard.
Driven by a passion to bring classical music to new audiences, Orli Shaham maintains an active parallel career as a respected broadcaster, music writer and lecturer. In 2005, she began a collaboration with Classical Public Radio Network as the host of "Dial-a-Musician," a feature she created especially for the radio network. The concept of the program was to enhance listeners' experiences of music and musicians. During the feature she directed listeners' questions about classical music to fellow musicians -by literally dialing them up for the correct answer. Her program hosted over 60 guests including composer John Adams, pianists Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, Emerson String Quartet violinist Philip Setzer and cellist David Finckel, and sopranos Natalie Dessay and Christine Brewer. Orli Shaham has taught music literature at Columbia University, and contributed articles to Piano Today, Symphony, and Playbill magazines. Ms. Shaham has served as artist in residence on National Public Radio's Performance Today.
In addition to the forthcoming CD of Jewish music, Orli Shaham and her older brother Gil have collaborated on several recordings including a Deutsche Grammophon recording entitled Dvorák for Two, and an all-Prokofiev disc The Prokofiev Album on Canary Classics, ("As fine a recording of the violin and piano music of Prokofiev as has ever been made by one of the finest violinist and pianist teams of the last ten years." Barnes&Noble.com). Their recent recording, Mozart in Paris, features Mozart Violin Sonatas, Opus 1 and is available on CD from Canary Classics and as a Euroarts DVD. When performing this recorded repertoire live, critics have praised the glorious "sibling revelry" (The Plain Dealer)--musical chemistry, nourished by shared family history and a comfortable give-and-take.
Orli Shaham was recognized early for her prodigious talents. She received her first scholarship for musical study from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation at age five to study with Luisa Yoffe at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. By age seven, she traveled to New York with her family to begin study with Nancy Stessin, and became a scholarship student of Herbert Stessin at The Juilliard School a year later. She has also won the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, two prestigious prizes given to further the development of outstanding talent. In addition to her musical education, Orli Shaham holds a degree in history from Columbia University. Orli Shaham lives in New York and St. Louis with her husband, conductor David Robertson, teenage stepsons Peter and Jonathan, and pre-school twins Nathan and Alex.
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