Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman has been a tour-de-force in the world of music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics. Just as devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has inspired younger artists with his magnetism and passion. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa. The name Pinchas Zukerman is equally lauded as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue and chamber musician. His relationships with some of the greatest artists of the present century have also been featured in some award-winning documentaries. Zukerman often performs on the viola with his close friend and fellow violinist, Itzahk Perlman, and is no less prolific or gripping in the recording studio than on stage having contributed immensely to the body of concert music recordings. His discography includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas and piano trios, which he played with renowned pianist Daniel Barenboim, and the beloved cellist Jacqueline du Pré. And you can find some extracts of the formidable duet and trio on medici.tv.    

Pinchas Zukerman's 2012-2013 season included over 100 worldwide performances, bringing him to multiple destinations in North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Zukerman is currently in his 14th season as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. In his fourth season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, he directs the ensemble in concerts in Switzerland, Russia and the United Kingdom. Additional orchestral engagements include the Boston, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Colorado and Kansas City Symphonies. His guest appearances with international orchestras include the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky State Theatre Orchestra, Orchestre de Monte Carlo, Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Miyazaki Festival Orchestra and the Teatro San Carlo Orchestra in Naples. Recitals with pianist Angela Cheng have taken the duo to Salzburg, Prague, Philadelphia, Palm Beach, Milan, Taiwan, Madrid, Helsinki and Verbier Festival, among others. His chamber ensemble, the Zukerman Chamber Players, has appeared at the Ravinia and Toronto summer music festivals and toured to Los Angeles, Phoenix, China, Japan, and throughout Europe and South America.

His highlights from the 2021-2022 season included performances with the Israel Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra in his inaugural season as Artistic and Principal Education Partner. 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. With Amanda Forsyth, he appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Reading and New Bedford Symphonies.

Over the last decade, Pinchas Zukerman has become regarded as great of a conductor as he is an instrumentalist, taking direction over many of the world's top ensembles in a wide variety of the orchestral repertoire's most demanding works. A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts, in order to keep in contact with his students during his visiting concerts. In Canada, he established the NAC Institute for Orchestra Studies and the Summer Music Institute encompassing the Young Artists, Conductors and Composers Programs to teach classical music, conducting and composition at the highest level. Among his students there are some of the greatest artists of the new generation of classical music interpreters, such as Julian Rachlin, and many others.

Born in Tel Aviv (Israel) in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman began learning to play the violin from his father when he was about seven years old. After violinist Isaac Stern and cellist Pablo Casals heard Zukerman play in Tel Aviv Academy of Music in Israel, they helped him to move and study at the Juilliard School in New York City. Pinchas Zukerman's extensive discography contains over 100 titles. He has received 21 Grammy nominations and two awards, including Best Classical Performance-Instrumental Soloist in the Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert and Best Chamber Music Performance for his duets playing with Itzahk Perlman in Moszkowski’s Suite for Two Violins, Shostakovich’s violin duets, and Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins . His honors include the King Solomon Award, the National Medal of Arts (presented by President Reagan in 1983), an honorary doctorate from Brown University, and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative's first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Additionally, he was the first recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence.