Hagai Shaham

Hagai Shaham was born in 1966 in Haifa

Hagai Shaham was born on July 8, 1966. His father was a music teacher who played chamber music with friends. His sister is the mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham.

He started the violin at age 6. At 12, after a master class audition with Isaac Stern and Dorothy DeLay, he was accepted as a student of Ilona Feher. He was her last student.

As a soloist he has played with orchestras in Europe, Asia and Israel, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In 1985 he joined Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall. He has recorded works by Joseph Achron, Bloch, Brahms, Hubay, Grieg and Mozart, including unpublished Achron pieces he found at the National Library in Jerusalem.

He taught at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and from 2007 at the University of Southern California. Since 2009 he has been a professor at Tel Aviv University, and he also teaches at Stony Brook University. He helped set up a fund in memory of Ilona Feher and is music director of the Maestro association.

His wife, Efrat Schechter-Shaham, is a flutist who moved to business management. Their 3 children are musicians.