Biography
With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today's most sought after and versatile musicians - violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations.
This season’s highlights include performances with orchestra and in chamber music recitals, including those with the very distinguished Zukerman Trio, in Spain, Denmark, Sweden and France, and, in his Wolf Trap debut with cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Michael Stephen Brown. Orchestral performances abroad include the Adelaide Symphony, Orchestre de Lyon (in France and on tour in Spain), the Bamberg Symphony with Lahav Shani, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (in Rome and Salzburg), the Israel Philharmonic, L’Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto in Italy and the English Chamber Orchestra at Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. After a highly successful tour in Spain last season as a soloist with the Polish Sinfonia Varsovia, Zukerman rejoins the orchestra this season in Poland to conduct.
Recent highlights include performances with Dallas Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Mannheimer Philharmoniker, Adelaide Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon and the Valencia, Sinfonia Varsovia, Castille y Leon orchestras of Spain, Israel Philharmonic and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Chamber music concerts took place in Japan, Italy, France, Germany and the United States. He and cellist Amanda Forsyth collaborated with friends and colleagues the Jerusalem String Quartet in sextet programs offered in both Israel and the US. He and Amanda Forsyth also appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Reading and New Bedford Symphonies. And with the Zukerman Trio, he visited the Ravinia, Aspen and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festivals, as well as Parlance Chamber Concerts in New Jersey, and Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for over 25 years, and has taught at prominent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, Israel, China and Canada, among others. This season, he continues his role as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Artistic & Principal Education Partner, collaborating with DSO in partnership with Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, to provide intensive coaching and tutoring sessions for its music students.
As a mentor he has inspired generations of young musicians who have achieved prominence in performing, teaching, and leading roles with music festivals around the globe. Mr. Zukerman has received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Calgary, as well as the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. He is a recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence in Classical Music.
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“Zukerman again seemed the forever-young virtuoso: expressively resourceful, infectiously musical, technically impeccable, effortless. As usual, it was a joy to be in his musical company.”
- The Los Angeles Times
“The precision and clarity of his sound and his strong romantic sensibility contribute to this excellence, but even more important is the intelligence of his interpretations. The listener is constantly engaged as he brings a little extra something to each phrase.”
- Ottawa Citizen
“You could have blindfolded an experienced listener, put him in a different room where he could scarcely hear the sounds, and he'd still recognize that liquid, Zukerman tone. There is no other like it....His sound is utterly inimitable - as it has been for more than 30 years - from its intense sweetness on high to its throaty richness at the depths of the instrument....And the molten gold that streams from the instrument is completely breathtaking. Fabulous playing.”
The Herald (Glasgow)
