Violinist
Harris Shilakowsky
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Chamber Music Society |
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Chamber Music Society |
Harris Shilakowsky, Artistic Director of the Bristol Chamber Orchestra, has appeared as solo violinist with the New England Conservatory, Grand Rapids, New Orleans, Omaha and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, performing Mozart, Bach and Dvorak Violin Concertos, Vaughan-Williams' "Lark Ascending" and Ravel's 'Tzigane', the Brahms Concerto and Chausson 'Poeme' and in live recitals on NPR Stations in Boston, Omaha and Nashville. He is currently the concertmaster of the Granite State Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Shilakowsky performs with groups such as the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Boston, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Pro Arté Chamber Orchestra, and the American Symphony. He performs in theatrical productions at the Colonial, Wang, and Schubert Theaters in Boston in shows such as TITANIC, WEST SIDE STORY, and ANNIE. Shilakowsky is concertmaster for many of the Providence Performing Arts Center's touring productions, including national tours of SHOWBOAT, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and CATHY RIGBY IS PETER PAN. He was a first violinist and on-stage solo musician for the 'Frankfurt-1995' production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's SUNSET BOULEVARD. In 1995, he performed West Side Story at the Schiller Theater in Berlin, Germany.
In 1994, Mr. Shilakowsky, was a guest leader of the London Symphony Orchestra performing recording sessions, tours and performances under conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir George Solti, Sir Colin Davis and André Previn in performances with Jessye Norman, Yuri Bashmet, Peter Zimmerman, and Kiri Tekanawa, among others. He performs regularly as back-up musician performers such as Sarah Brightman and Johnny Mathis.
He has taught at several schools, including the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston. He was head of the string department at the South Shore Conservatory, and has taught at the Thayer Conservatory of Music.
Shilakowsky was concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony, the New Orleans Symphony under Maxim Shostakovich, the Omaha Symphony directed by Bruce Hangen, the Grand Rapids Symphony under Semyon Bychkov, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Las Palmas and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. Shilakowsky served as concertmaster for the European Tour of MY FAIR LADY, with Maximillian Schell. He has also worked with the Boston, Chautauqua and Nashville Symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Handel-Haydn Society of Boston, and the Opera Company of Boston.
Shilakowsky earned his Bachelor of Music cum laudé from New England Conservatory of Music and a Master's Degree from Yale University. His teachers include Joseph Silverstein, Koichiro Harada, Nancy Cirillo, and Leo Panasevich of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; David Cerone, Vali Bluttner and Yair Kless, chamber music with Joseph Gingold, Louis Krasner, Rudolph Kolisch, Eugene Lehner, master classes and chamber music with Oscar Shumsky and members of the Tokyo Quartet at Yale. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1955. He was concertmaster of the Des Moines Metro Opera, and performs with Pro Arté Chamber Orchestra. He is a Tanglewood alumnus, and an active composer. During his tenure with the Charleston Symphony, he debuted a set of new cadenzas for the Mozart 4th Violin Concerto which he wrote for the occasion of that appearance. He has written a musical called BABEL, and co-wrote another which was based on the dramatic monologue by Robert Browning, 'My Last Duchess". He has been listed in 'Who's Who in Musical America'.
Current information on upcoming recitals and concerts can be found at the website:
