DSO Partnership To Bring Pinchas Zukerman to Meadows

The Dallas Symphony has announced that famed violinist Pinchas Zukerman will serve as its Artistic & Principal Education Partner for the next two seasons, beginning in September, and will teach students at SMU Meadows as part of his appointment. Zukerman will provide intensive chamber music coaching and instrument tutoring sessions for Meadows music students, including both in-person instruction and distance learning/online master classes. The full release from the DSO follows:

Dallas, Texas (April 21, 2021) – The Dallas Symphony has named lauded musician and long-time DSO collaborator Pinchas Zukerman as Artistic & Principal Education Partner for the next two seasons beginning in September 2021. In this role, Zukerman will play-direct chamber orchestra concerts with the DSO, appear as violin soloist with the orchestra and collaborate with DSO musicians in chamber music performances during the two-year term. He will also lead, as an important component of this appointment, intensive chamber-music coaching and instrument tutoring sessions in partnership with Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. 

Pinchas Zukerman has a long association with the Dallas Symphony beginning with his first performance with the orchestra in 1977. He was DSO Principal Guest Conductor from 1993-1995 and led the DSO Summer Music Festival from 1991-1995. Zukerman recently appeared as conductor with the orchestra in December 2020 and as violin soloist in July and September 2015. 

“I am thrilled to continue the DSO’s relationship with Pinchas with this new role,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony. “Each of these activities will focus on an element of his incredible career and share his wisdom and talent with a new generation of performers.” 

“It is always a joy to return to Dallas to perform and reconnect with so many musicians who I have known for many years,” said Zukerman. “I am honored to be the first person named to this new position, and I look forward not only to collaborating once again with the Symphony over the next two seasons, but also having the opportunity to work with music students at the Meadows School and building this new relationship between two outstanding Dallas organizations.” 

The collaboration with SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts will involve both in-person instruction and distance learning/online masterclasses. This unique combination will allow this partnership to reach a maximum number of talented students at SMU. The partnership will include individual string instruction and chamber music coaching. 

“SMU Meadows is especially pleased and honored to deepen and extend our relationship with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra,” said Samuel S. Holland, Algur H. Meadows Dean, Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. “The opportunity to bring a musician of Zukerman’s stature into direct contact with musicians of the next generation is unparalleled. It will be, I’m sure, a transformational experience for our students. The innovative partnership, including the distance learning component, will put Dallas, the DSO, and SMU Meadows in front of a global audience—and that’s sure to be a good thing for us all." 

At the DSO, Zukerman will perform as violinist-director, violin soloist and chamber musician partner throughout the tenure. In February 2022, he will play-direct a week of concerts with the orchestra, and in January 2023, Fabio Luisi will lead the DSO with Zukerman as violin soloist. Each season he will curate and perform in two chamber music concerts with DSO musicians.

ABOUT PINCHAS ZUKERMAN

With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today's most sought-after and versatile musicians - violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations. In his most recent post, he has served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for 12 years. 

Highlights of the 2020-2021 season include performances with the Dallas, Utah, Palm Beach, and Stamford Symphonies, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. With the Zukerman Trio, he performs at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, CA, Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, OK, and internationally in Barcelona, Madrid and Girona, Spain. Additional performances include virtual recitals with the Zukerman Trio for People’s Symphony Concerts and with Shai Wosner for Chamber Music Society of Detroit. 

The 2019-2020 season included a US tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, as well as guest appearances with the Boston, Atlanta and Prague Symphonies and Berlin Staatskapelle. His spring 2020 tour with the Vienna Philharmonic was cancelled due to the pandemic and is being rescheduled for a future season. In his fifth season as Artist-in-Residence of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, he toured with the ensemble to China and Korea, and recently premiered Avner Dorman’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, written for Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth. Subsequent performances of the important new work took place at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony, and in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where Zukerman serves as Conductor Emeritus. In chamber music, he traveled with the Zukerman Trio for performances throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia, and joined longtime friend and collaborator Daniel Barenboim for a cycle of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano, presented in a three-concert series in Berlin. 

A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for over 25 years and has taught at prominent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, Israel, China and Canada, among others. As a mentor he has inspired generations of young musicians who have achieved prominence in performing, teaching, and leading roles with music festivals around the globe. Mr. Zukerman has received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Calgary, as well as the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. He is a recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence in Classical Music.

ABOUT THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Fabio Luisi, presents world-class orchestral music at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s top-rated concert halls. As the largest performing arts organization in the Southwest, the DSO is committed to inspiring the broadest possible audience with distinctive classical programs, inventive pops concerts and innovative multi-media presentations. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the orchestra reaches more than 243,000 adults and children annually through performances, educational programs and community outreach initiatives. The DSO’s involvement with the City of Dallas and the surrounding region includes an award-winning multi-faceted educational program, community projects, popular parks concerts and youth programming. 

During the pandemic, the Dallas Symphony was the first major U.S. orchestra to present socially distanced concerts with live audiences during the 2020/21 Season. Furthermore, the orchestra has offered more than 200 outdoor chamber concerts in neighborhoods throughout the Metroplex since the summer. The DSO continued online music lessons to more than 200 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs and increased its online dissemination of concerts through a newly designed website and on social media. 

The DSO has a tradition dating back to 1900 and is a cornerstone of the unique, 118-acre Arts District in Downtown Dallas that is home to multiple performing arts venues, museums and parks – the largest district of its kind in the nation. The DSO is supported, in part, by funds from the Office of Arts & Culture, City of Dallas.