Carnegie Hall

Carlos Miguel Prieto (Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year) is known for his charismatic conducting and dynamic, expressive interpretations, which have led to major engagements and popular acclaim throughout North America, Europe, and beyond. In recent seasons, he has appeared with leading orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beijing Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

Following a summer leading Carnegie Hall’s NYO2—which he returns to lead again in 2019—Mr. Prieto begins the 2018–2019 season conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, makes his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in November, and returns to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December. In the spring of 2019, he makes return appearances with the Hallé Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, and Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. This season marks Mr. Prieto’s 13th as music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2006, he has been part of the cultural revitalization of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. On February 27, 2018, he led the orchestra in its Carnegie Hall debut in a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of composer Philip Glass.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, Mr. Prieto is an influential cultural leader and the leading Mexican conductor of his generation. Since 2007, he has been the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s most important orchestra. In 2008, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería. Mr. Prieto is renowned for championing and commissioning new Latin American music and has conducted more than 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers.

A passionate proponent of music education, Mr. Prieto served as principal conductor of The Orchestra of the Americas from its inception until 2011, when he was appointed music director. In early 2010, he conducted the ensemble alongside Valery Gergiev on the 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum at Carnegie Hall.

In April 2018, Mr. Prieto was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music by Loyola University New Orleans.

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 (2012), is sought after around the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and performs 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 addition to championing these solo works, he will join pianist and long-time duo partner Akira Eguchi in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in the coming seasons.

Mr. Shaham regularly appears with such orchestras as the Berliner Philharmonikier, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony. He also has held multi-year residencies with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammy Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice honors. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Vol. 1; Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works; Nigunim: Hebrew Melodies; The Butterfly Lovers Concerto for Violin / Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto; and many more. His second volume in the 1930s Violin Concertos series—which includes Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2—was nominated for a Grammy.

Mr. Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990, and received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 2008. He plays the 1699 “Countessa, Princess de Polignac, Bardsley” Stradivarius. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.