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• Royal Philharmonic graces Krannert Center

On Jan. 16, Urbana’s Krannert Center will enjoy a double treat — a world class orchestra with a program that features a world class violinist. Pinchas Zuckerman will double that evening as the soloist and conductor.

Zuckerman is just two years younger than the Royal Philharmonic, originating from Tel Aviv in 1948. In 1962, with the support of no less than Pablo Casals and Isaac Stern, he came to New York to study. By 1963, he made his New York debut and in the late 1960s, began the first of some 100 recordings. Many of these were made with his friend, Daniel Barenboim, and his mentor, Isaac Stern. By 1970, his first major conducting job began with the English Chamber Orchestra, and conducting became as big a part of his musical life as the violin and viola.

Zuckerman served as principal conductor of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1980-1987, and mesmerized audiences with his brilliant violin playing. During his tenure at St. Paul, President Ronald Reagan recognized his legion of contributions to the performing arts in this country and others with an award of the U.S. Medal of the Arts in 1983. His work has netted him 21 Grammy nominations with two wins, and perusing the right internet sites will net you about 110 CDs of his work as soloist, chamber music performer, or conductor.

Since 1998, he’s headed Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. Perhaps his most amazing career accomplishment has been to hold down a job at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, where the Zuckerman Performance Program is a major component of this prestigious institution. On Jan. 16, he arrives as a guest conductor and soloist — two important parts of his career that he has seamlessly added to everything else.

His personal life has also attracted great attention — from an area of show business that rarely creates headlines. His first marriage to Eugenia Zuckerman, another extraordinary and multi-talented performer whose greatness as a flutist, journalist and writer of books (In My Mother’s Closet) ended after 15 years. One of his two daughters from this marriage, Natalie, was a major hit at this year’s Wall to Wall Guitar Festival at the Krannert Center in September.

He was then married to film star Tuesday Weld for 13 years and has most recently tied the knot with Amy Forsythe, the stellar cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Zuckerman’s most unusual legacy seems to be a recently recorded 10 CD audio book, The Concerto According to Pinchas, which he did for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Even a temporary union with the Royal Philharmonic is a change of pace for Zuckerman as most of his orchestral posts have been chamber orchestras, though not exclusively. The RPO was founded in 1946 by the late Sir Thomas Beecham as an elite performing ensemble. This London-based orchestra has indeed been among the world’s finest for the last 60 years. They have a current recorded legacy of some 3,500 CDs and a list of great conductors that include their current Music Director, Daniele Gatti, and their Principle Guest Conductor, Leonard Slatkin.

Their touring schedule has included guest appearances in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt under Maestro Slatkin — one of Great Britain’s best. With a program of Elgar, Bruch’s first violin concerto, and the dynamic fourth symphony of Peter Tchaikovsky, let us hope we experience the same as the London Times in September of 2006 when stated, “The Royal Philharmonic certainly looked sharp on their 60th birthday. The strings boasted impeccably silvery tone, the RPO brass ripped through the mighty tutti with glee.”