Shriver Hall Concert Series Launches 60th Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
mallory@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646.378.9386

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SHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES LAUNCHES 60TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
WITH CONCERT FEATURING GIL SHAHAM AND ORLI SHAHAM

Performance on October 5 at Shriver Hall Includes Works by
Johannes Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Amanda Maier

Season Continues with Baltimore Debut of the Sphinx Virtuosi Plus
Cellist Sterling Elliott on October 19 at Shriver Hall

Gil Shaham is "a virtuoso and a player of deeply intense sincerity." —The New York Times

"Stylish intelligence and pianistic refinement distinguishes Orli Shaham." —Gramophone

"True to their name, the Sphinx Virtuosi call up the vision of an iconic mythological feline with its immeasurable power, unwavering command, and soulful beauty." —The Washington Post

"Cellist Sterling Elliott held a full Severance Hall in his grasp." —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

www.ShriverConcerts.org

Baltimore, MD (September 2, 2025) — Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) — Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists — kicks off its 60th anniversary and 2025-26 concert season this fall with a season opening performance featuring the return of violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Orli Shaham, followed by the Baltimore debut of the Sphinx Virtuosi with cellist Sterling Elliott, who makes his Subscription Series debut.

SHCS’s 60th anniversary season opens on Sunday, October 5, 2025, with Grammy-winning Gil Shaham, “among the most inspired violinists of his generation” (The Guardian), and “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) Orli Shaham. The siblings and star soloists join forces for a rare and illuminating duo-recital after appearing separately on previous SHCS seasons – the October 5 concert will mark Gil Shaham’s seventh appearance on the series and Orli Shaham’s second appearance. Together, they perform works by Clara and Robert Schumann, and their close friends Johannes Brahms and Amanda Maier.

Orli Shaham remarks, “My brother Gil and I are excited to come back to Shriver Hall Concert Series, where we’ve enjoyed playing in the past. We're delighted to bring to Baltimore a program centered around the pianist and composer Clara Schumann, and the warm and visionary musical world that she created for herself and her compadres. We’re bringing music that we've played together for years, like the Brahms D-minor Sonata, which has always been one of our favorites. We’re also including a couple of pieces that we began performing together just this past season. These included Clara Schumann's stunning masterpiece, Romances, Opus 22 for violin and piano, which she wrote for herself and the violinist Joseph Joachim to play together, and Amanda Maier’s virtuosic and brilliant Violin Sonata, which she wrote as an homage to Robert Schumann’s Sonata, and which Brahms himself admired greatly.”

On Sunday, October 19, 2025, the pioneering Sphinx Virtuosi, an 18-member self-conducted string orchestra and flagship ensemble of the Sphinx Organization, make their Baltimore debut. With “immeasurable power, unwavering command, and soulful beauty” (Washington Post), these masterful players present a program devoted to peace and the resilience of the human spirit. Acclaimed young cellist Sterling Elliott, who debuts on the SHCS Subscription Series after appearing on the Discovery Series in 2023, joins as the soloist for American composer William Grant Still’s Suite, inspired by Harlem Renaissance sculptures.

“We at Sphinx Virtuosi are thrilled to present “Visions of Peace” at Shriver Hall Concert Series, marking our debut in Baltimore,” shares Andre Dowell, Chief Programming Officer at the Sphinx Organization. “This powerful collection of music explores themes of unity, harmony, and hope, aligning with our shared mission to uplift and connect communities through transformative artistic experiences.”

Shriver Hall Concert Series’ Subscription Series continues in November with a powerful trio comprised of violinist Tessa Lark, cellist Joshua Roman, and double bassist Edgar Meyer on Sunday, November 16, 2025. SHCS launches its acclaimed free Discovery Series on Saturday, November 8, 2025, with the Baltimore debut of the Abeo String Quartet.

For six decades, SHCS has created unforgettable musical experiences in the intimacy of Shriver Hall. The upcoming season builds on this legacy with a vibrant lineup of programs featuring enduring masterworks and fresh perspectives, from Bach to Beethoven to Billy Childs. Woven through the season are themes of another milestone: the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. Featuring American composers past and present, texts from the nation’s greatest poets, classical works infused with bluegrass and jazz, and some of today’s most thrilling young performers, these concerts will celebrate a nation brimming with musical treasures and talent.

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Concert Information

Gil Shaham, violin and Orli Shaham, piano
Sunday, October 5, 2025, at 5:30 pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $291 Subscription; $48 Single Tickets and $10 Students
Link: https://www.shriverconcerts.org/shaham

AMANDA MAIER: Violin Sonata in B minor
CLARA SCHUMANN: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Three Romances, Op. 94
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Pre-concert talk at 4:30 pm with WJBC's Jonathan Palevsky.

The Mity Clarke Gann Memorial Concert
The Reiko T. and Yuan C. Lee Concert for Outstanding String Performers

Sphinx Virtuosi (Baltimore Debut) and Sterling Elliott, cello
Sunday, October 19, 2025, at 5:30 pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $291 Subscription; $48 Single Tickets and $10 Students
Link: www.shriverconcerts.org/sphinx

JOSÉ WHITE: La bella cubana
CLARICE ASSAD: Selections from Impressions
JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Chemiluminescence (Baltimore Premiere)
WILLIAM GRANT STILL: Suite for Cello & Orchestra (arr. Randall Goosby)
QUENTON BLACHE: A Vision for Peace (Baltimore Premiere)
SERGEY PROKOFIEV: Sonata No. 7, “Stalingrad” (arr. Rubén Rengel)
ALBERTO GINASTERA: Finale from Concerto for Strings, Op. 33

Pre-concert talk at 4:30 pm, speakers TBA.
The Yale Gordon Young Artist Concert

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About Shriver Hall Concert Series
Since 1966, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” (The Baltimore Sun) and the area’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall.

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years, SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season.

The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Han Lash, Caroline Shaw, and Nina C. Young.

Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, Eric Lu, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society and a variety of student programs.

For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.

About Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique, combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit, has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award-winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.

Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to championing these solo works, he will join his long time duo partner pianist Akira Eguchi in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony as well as multi-year residencies with the Orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore. With orchestra, Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartók, Berg, Korngold, Prokofiev, among many others.

Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammys, 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 CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers, and many more. His most recent recording in the series, 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2, including Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, was nominated for a Grammy Award. His latest recording of Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights was released in 2021 and was also nominated for a Grammy.

Gil Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took the first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard and also studied at Columbia University.

Gil Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and in 2008, he received the coveted 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 an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children. His website is gilshaham.com.

About Orli Shaham
A consummate musician recognized for her grace, subtlety, and brilliance, Orli Shaham has established an impressive international reputation as one of today’s most gifted pianists, in demand for her prodigious skills and admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire. The New York Times called her a “brilliant pianist” and The Chicago Tribune referred to her as “a first-rate Mozartean.” She has performed with most of the major orchestras in the United States and with many ensembles across five continents, given recitals on stages from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House, and appeared at music festivals around the world.

Shaham’s 2024-25 concert season included performances of concertos written for her by David Robertson with Utah Symphony and by Steven Mackey at Tanglewood, as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto with her brother, violinist Gil Shaham. Chamber recitals across the country include Dumbarton Oaks, Music at Menlo, La Jolla, and more.

Recent performance highlights include Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, a piano concerto by John Adams, with the Finnish Radio Symphony; Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Pacific Symphony; a tour with Brandenburg State Orchestra; and festival appearances at Sun Valley, Chautauqua, Bowdoin, and Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

Shaham is the artistic director, host, and featured performer for Pacific Symphony’s chamber series Café Ludwig, a position she has held since 2007. She was artist-in-residence at Vancouver Symphony (USA) in 2022-24.

In 2024, she released the final volumes of the complete piano sonatas by Mozart. The entire sonata cycle, along with her recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos K.453 and K.491 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, received high critical acclaim.

Shaham’s discography includes her acclaimed solo album, “Brahms Inspired”, and her performance of John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music with the pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2014, she released “American Grace”, featuring Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her discography includes over a dozen titles on Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Canary Classics, and other labels.

Orli Shaham is on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School, and she has served on the juries of both the Cliburn and Honens international piano competitions. She is a major presence on public radio coast to coast as co-host and creative for NPR’s From the Top series, as former host of America’s Music Festivals, and as creator and host of Dial-a-Musician. She is regularly featured on the popular music education platform Tonebase, including a 22-part series on the music by Karen Tanaka, masterclasses on Mozart’s piano sonatas, and a lecture-performance about Clara Schumann.

Shaham is Artistic Director of the interactive children’s concert series Bach Yard, which she founded in 2010, and she is chair of the Board of Trustees of Kaufman Music Center. In addition to her musical education at The Juilliard School, she holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and pursued a master’s degree in musicology from Columbia. She is the winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Her website is orlishaham.com.

About Sphinx Virtuosi
“[The performance] opened with a propulsive, richly hued interpretation…which demonstrated the ensemble’s polish and tonal allure.” –The New York Times

Sphinx Virtuosi is a dynamic, self-conducted chamber orchestra and the flagship performing ensemble of the Sphinx Organization, the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to transforming the arts. Comprising 18 of the nation’s most accomplished professional string players, Sphinx Virtuosi is redefining classical music through artistic excellence, pioneering programming, and cultural leadership.

Recognized for their artistry and commanding presence, Sphinx Virtuosi has been praised by The New York Times as “top-notch…more essential at this moment than ever.” The Strad lauds their “elegant ascent into the upper ranks of string orchestras,” a testament to their growing influence in the field. Performing for audiences nationwide, their annual Carnegie Hall appearance has become a celebrated highlight of the fall season. Their critically acclaimed debut album, Songs for Our Times (Deutsche Grammophon), was hailed as “a knockout” by Gramophone, which praised their “consistently polished and passionate performances.”

Members of Sphinx Virtuosi are sought-after soloists, chamber musicians, and faculty members at top institutions. They have performed with major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. Beyond the concert stage, they are artist-citizens, leading impactful community initiatives and fostering deep engagement with audiences worldwide.

Sphinx Virtuosi has collaborated with legendary artists such as Terence Blanchard, Denyce Graves, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Damien Sneed, Will Liverman, J’Nai Bridges, Abel Selaocoe, and Davóne Tines. They have also worked with cultural icons like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, with high-profile appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and the Grammy Awards broadcast.

About Sterling Elliott
Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As a YCAT–Music Masters Robey Artist with the London-based Young Classical Artists Trust, Elliott has toured New Zealand and performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He is currently a BBC New Generation Artist and in the midst of a three-year residency with the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, appearing at Alice Tully Hall and on tour throughout the U.S.

Elliott has a long-standing relationship with the Sphinx Organization, winning the 2014 Junior Division Competition and becoming the first alumnus of the Sphinx Performance Academy to win the Senior Division. He is also a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the organization’s highest honor.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as an Artist Diploma, from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He is an ambassador of Young Strings of America, a sponsorship initiative operated by Shar Music, and performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

Photo of Gil Shaham by Chris Lee; photo of Orli Shaham by Matthew Morgan; photo of Sphinx Virtuosi by Scott Jackson; photo of Sterling Elliott by Titilayo Ayangade

Shriver Hall Concert Series’ season is made possible through generous support from the Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore County Commission for Arts & Sciences, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust, and William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund.

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