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Harris
Shilakowsky |
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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. He has been
listed in 'Who's Who in Musical America'.
What is it? I'll pull my Oxford Companion to Music by Percy A. Scholes (Tenth Edition, published by Oxford University Press London, New York, Toronto 1970) from the shelf. I'll excerpt a bit from that tome. "Definition. Before public concert-giving began (in the late seventeenth century...") "...set musical performances fell into three classes, those of the church, those of the theatre, and those of the halls of royalty and the aristocracy. Those of the last class, whether vocal or instrumental, were 'Chamber Music'. we find the adjective also in the terms Sonata da Camera, or 'chamber sonata', as distinguished from the Sonata da Chiesa, or 'church sonata'..." "...and Cantata da Camera as distinguished from Cantata da Chiesa. A definition of chamber music at the very beginning of the nineteenth century, when the concert had long been a public thing, is that by Dr. Burney in Rees's Cyclopaedia (c.1805): 'Chamber Music-compositions for a small concert room, a small band, and a small audience; opposed to music for the church, the theatre, or a public concert room.' Similarly, in his History Burney spoke of chamber music comprehensively as 'cantatas, single songs, solos and trios, quartets, concertos and symphonies of few parts'. The term 'chamber music', as now used, has a narrower sense than it had in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. It excludes (quite logically) music for orchestra, chorus, and other large combinations, but also (more arbitrarily) excludes all vocal music and all instrumental music for one instrument (e.g. piano sonatas). It includes all seriously intended instrumental music for two or more instruments played with one instrument to a 'part'--and it includes nothing else. a concert of music of this sort is a 'Chamber Concert'." The Oxford continues with some examples of typical configurations, like the sextet, the quartet, duo, etc. A bit further down the page, we come across the following..."...There are too, a good many compositions for 'Chamber Orchestra', i.e., some comparatively large combinations with only one instrument to a 'part'. But this definition is not always accepted. There are organizations calling themselves 'Chamber Orchestra' that are merely small ordinary orchestra. The term is a new one and has not yet settled down to precise meaning...." Well, says Professor Harris, things change. Music and all art forms must evolve or die! The Chamber Orchestra is indeed becoming an important part of the musical scene...I hope, since I've formed one recently myself and wish for its acceptance and success! |
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