Juraj Valčuha & Gil Shaham
March 27, 29 & 30, 2025
Overview
The success of Brahms’s sole Violin Concerto was hard-won, but now it's impossible to imagine the Romantic violin repertoire without it. Juraj Valčuha and Gil Shaham return for a luminous reading of the ultimate sleeper hit. Shostakovich’s intensely passionate, profoundly ambivalent Symphony No. 10 brims over with real-life references—ranging from a portrait of the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to musically coded proxies for the composer himself and the object of his hopeless midlife crush.
Sponsors
Juraj Valčuha’s appearance is supported by the Louise M. Davies Guest Conductor Fund.
Juraj Valčuha
Conductor
Juraj Valčuha has been music director of the Houston Symphony since June 2022. He was previously music director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples from 2016 to 2022, chief conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai from 2009 to 2016, and first guest conductor of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra.
Valčuha’s recent engagements include the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de France, and Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra. On the opera stage, he has led productions at the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Opera di Roma. He has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and NHK Symphony.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Valčuha studied composition and conducting in his hometown as well as in Saint Petersburg and Paris. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in May 2013 as a Shenson Young Artist.
Valčuha’s recent engagements include the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de France, and Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra. On the opera stage, he has led productions at the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Opera di Roma. He has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and NHK Symphony.
Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Valčuha studied composition and conducting in his hometown as well as in Saint Petersburg and Paris. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in May 2013 as a Shenson Young Artist.
Gil Shaham
Violin
Gil Shaham regularly appears with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic, and has had multi-year residencies with the Montreal Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony. Recent highlights including performances and a recording of Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin, as well as recitals with his long-time duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi.
Shaham has more than two dozen recordings to his name, earning a Grammy Award, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His 2016 recording 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2 as well as his 2021 recording with the Knights were nominated for Grammys.
Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and in 2008 received the Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on another Antonio Stradivari violin, ca. 1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 1990 and became a Shenson Young Artist in 2005.
Shaham has more than two dozen recordings to his name, earning a Grammy Award, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His 2016 recording 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2 as well as his 2021 recording with the Knights were nominated for Grammys.
Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and in 2008 received the Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on another Antonio Stradivari violin, ca. 1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in July 1990 and became a Shenson Young Artist in 2005.
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