The Canadian National Newspaper: Pinchas Zuckerman delights audiences

Former Prime Minister of Canada Sir Wilfrid Laurier once said, was "not a handsome city," having nothing remarkable about it apart from the Rideau Falls and the site where the Parliament Buildings rise up on a high cliff -- "Ottawa's only natural beauty." If Laurier were writing today, he might have added one other natural wonder often witnessed around Ottawa: the violin playing of Pinchas Zukerman, music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Pinchas Zukerman has been recognized as a musical phenomenon for nearly four decades. His musical genius and prodigious technique have long been a marvel to critics and audiences, and his exceptional artistic standards continue to earn him the highest acclaim. Equally respected as a violinist, violist, conductor, chamber musician and teacher, Pinchas Zukerman is indeed a master of our time.

Pinchas Zukerman has been recognized as a musical phenomenon for four decades. His genius and prodigious technique have long been a marvel to critics and audiences, and his exceptional artistic standards continue to earn him the highest acclaim. He is equally respected as a violinist, violist, conductor, teacher and chamber musician.

Pinchas Zukerman's 2005-2006 schedule away from the National Arts Centre includes a recital tour with violinist Itzhak Perlman to Washington's Kennedy Center, New York's Lincoln Center, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami and Chicago as well as the National Arts Centre; conducting and/or soloing with (among others) the Indianapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Singapore and National Symphony Orchestras, the Israel, Seoul and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Berlin Staatskapelle; a tour of Belgium and Germany with the Belgian National Orchestra; and a recital tour with pianist Marc Neikrug including stops in London, Paris, Moscow, Milan, Munich, and Birmingham.

Since his appointment as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1998, Mr. Zukerman has taken an interest in virtually every aspect of Ottawa's artistic community while continuing his international career. He has made five recordings with the Orchestra and been involved in a number of national radio and television broadcasts. He has introduced a new Acoustic Control System in Southam Hall, created the Pinchas Zukerman Musical Instruments Foundation for the NAC Orchestra and founded Parents for the Arts. A pioneer of distance learning, he champions the NAC's broadband videoconferencing programme known as Hexagon.

In 1999 he initiated the NAC Young Artists Programme, which is now part of the NAC Summer Music Institute (SMI) including the Conductors Programme founded in 2001, and the Young Composers Programme founded in 2003. The 2005 SMI assembled over 80 talented musicians chosen by audition and invitation from Canada and around the world to study with an international faculty headed by Zukerman. Most attend the SMI on full scholarships supported by individual donors and corporate partners through the NAC's National Youth and Education Trust.

Since the arrival of Pinchas Zukerman, the National Arts Centre Orchestra has regained its commitment to regular touring both nationally and internationally. These tours now include a strong educational component. He led enormously successful Canadian tours in 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005 as well as critically acclaimed tours to the Middle East and Europe in 2000, and the United States and Mexico in 2003, all highlighted by unprecedented outreach activities and innovative internet activities on the NAC's website at www.nac-cna.ca. The Orchestra's Alberta and Saskatchewan in November 2005 included over 95 educational events.

A frequent chamber music performer, Pinchas Zukerman has appeared worldwide with friends and colleagues who are luminaries of the music world, including Daniel Barenboim, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Itzhak Perlman, Ralph Kirshbaum, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Marc Neikrug and the late Jacqueline du Pré.

He now leads the Zukerman ChamberPlayers, a string ensemble of talented musicians mainly from the NAC Orchestra, which performed in the summers of 2003 and 2004 at prestigious European and North American festivals. After a summer 2005 tour including the Ravinia, Aspen Tanglewood and Santa Fe festivals, and engagements in Germany, France, Spain and Istanbul, and a CD recording, the Zukerman ChamberPlayers will undertake a United States tour in 2006.

Pinchas Zukerman's discography contains over 100 titles, and has earned him 21 Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards. His most recent recording at the National Arts Centre was nominated for a 2004 Juno Award.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman studied music with Ilona Feher and, in 1962, came to America with the support of Isaac Stern, Pablo Casals, and the America-Israel and Helena Rubenstein Foundations. He began his studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian, and in 1967 was named first-prize winner of the 25th Leventritt Competition.

Maestro Zukerman was presented with the King Solomon Award by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and, in 1983, President Reagan awarded him a Medal of Arts for his leadership in the musical world. In October 2002, he became the first recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence at the National Arts Awards Gala in New York City.