Hagai Shaham is an Israeli violinist and teacher born (in Haifa) on July
8, 1966. For reasons I know nothing
about, he has never left Israel as his home base, as have so many other concert
violinists – Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Guy Braunstein, Jonathan Berick,
Lydia Mordkovitch, Vadim Gluzman, and Ivry Gitlis, to name a few. He is also known for recordings of
little-known works by Joseph Achron.
Shaham is often asked whether he is closely related to American
violinist Gil Shaham – he is not. Shaham
began his violin studies at age 6. He
later studied (from age 12) with Ilona Feher (1901-1988) in Tel Aviv - it has been said that
he was her last student. He also studied
with Emanuel Borok (the highest-paid concertmaster in the world), Elisha Kagan,
and Arnold Steinhardt. Shaham has taught
at USC (in the US - 2007), the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and Tel Aviv
University, among other places. He has
also given numerous master classes throughout the world. His recording labels have included Decca,
Chandos, Hyperion, Naxos, Nimbus, and Biddulph. His
Achron recordings are on the Hyperion label – some of these works have never
before been available to the general public.
It has been said that he found these forgotten works (in manuscript
form) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
These recordings have been highly praised. One reviewer stated that “through the richness of his tone, superior vibrato
usage, expressiveness of phrasing and top-drawer facility, he fulfills his
potential in striking fashion. It is a
treat to hear such tonally satisfying violin playing when commonplace sound,
even among accomplished artists, is so prevalent." Another has stated that he has “an impressive
a technique as anyone except Heifetz…” In 2009, he formed a piano trio with Arnon Erez (piano) and Raphael Wallfisch. Since then, the trio has toured regularly but mostly in Europe. Here
is a YouTube video of him playing a well-known piece by Jeno Hubay.
Emanuel Borok is a Russian (many would say American) violinist
and teacher born (in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) on July 15, 1944. Although he was Associate Concertmaster of
the Boston Symphony for 11 years, he is best known for being the long-time
concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony, a post from which he retired in
2010. As a child, he studied violin at
the Darzinya Music School in Riga (Latvia) with Voldemar Sturestep. At age 15, he entered the well-known Gnessin Music
School in Moscow. One of his teachers
there was Michael Garlitsky. After
winning some of the top prizes in the All Russian Republic and All Soviet Union
Violin Competitions, he joined the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra as Assistant
Concertmaster in 1969. He was 25 years
old. He became Second Concertmaster of the
Moscow Philharmonic in 1971. Two years
later, he went to Israel to serve as concertmaster of the Israel Chamber
Orchestra. In 1974, he came to the U.S.
to join the Boston Symphony as Associate Concertmaster, a post which
automatically made him concertmaster of the famous Boston Pops Orchestra. In 1985, he joined the Dallas Symphony as
concertmaster. He was 41 years old. The Principal conductors under which he was
concertmaster were Eduardo Mata, Andrew Litton, and Jaap Van Zweden. Besides concertizing in South America,
Canada, and Europe, he has several times partnered in solo appearances with
Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Janos Starker, among many others. He continues to perform and teach at several
music festivals in the U.S. Borok has
taught at the Tanglewood Music Center, the University of Houston, Southern
Methodist University, and the University of North Texas. However, he has also occasionally taught in
Italy, Switzerland, France, Russia, the Czech Republic, and England. In addition to the dozens of recordings with
the Boston and Dallas orchestras, Borok has recorded as a soloist on the Eroica
label and has also published cadenzas for the Mozart concertos. A 1727 Stradivarius which Borok played was stolen from him in 1985 in Europe. It was recovered 20 years later before being auctioned off by an unsuspecting auction house. This is unusual because such thefts more than often go unsolved. Erica Morini's stolen violin is still out there somewhere. Borok now plays a 1608 Amati violin which he
purchased in 1976. It is definitely one
of the oldest violins being played on a concert stage today. You can hear the magnificent (gorgeous) tone
of this Amati in this YouTube video.
