Adam Han-Gorski, a brief summary of his 65 years in music.
Mr. Han-Gorski has studied with the top teachers of the 20th century: Antoni Szafranek, Oeden Partos, Josef Gingold, Ivan Galamian, Sandor Végh, Tadeusz Wronski and four years with Jascha Heifetz, undisputedly the greatest violinist of all times.
One of the youngest Holocaust survivors, he gave his debut with an orchestra on March 21, 1948, in Poland.
At 15, he was one of the two finalists (the other 32) out of a group of 7, representing Poland in the International Competition in Warsaw.
Having graduated from high school in Poland in 1957, his family emigrated to Israel where he continued his studies at the Israeli Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He was a grant recipient of both Helena Rubinstein and Keren Norman Foundations and frequently appeared in fundraising concerts with his younger colleagues Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried and Pinchas Zuckerman.
In 1961, Jascha Heifetz invited in Paris, he was invited to his Master Classes starting at USC in Los Angeles in early 1962. Already that very summer he participated in what a known LA critic described as a "special kind of a concert" with the performance of the Vivaldi's Double Concerto with the late cellist Steven Kates (latter winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow) followed by the performance of Jascha Heifetz with Gregor Piatigorski - an honor very few musician ever had...
During his 4 years at USC, he had a once in a lifetime opportunity to study simultaneously with the greatest string players of the 20th Century; Jascha Heifetz, William Primrose & Gregor Piatigorski. Upon completion of his Master Classes, Heifetz presented Han-Gorski with a Venetian violin by Matteo Goffriller, (1659-1742).
Prize winner in several international competitions, Han-Gorski received raved reviews over the next fifty years praising his effortless technique, elegant style and in particular his profound musicianship.
As an international soloist and concertmaster,
Adam Han-Gorski had worked with such luminaries as; George Szell, Karel Ančerl, Leonard Bernstein, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, AaronCopland, Antal Doráti, Vladimir Fedoseev, Lamberto Gardelli, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Herbert von Karajan,
István Kertész, Paul Klecki, Erich Leinsdorf, Josef Krips, Jan Krenz, Aldo Ceccato, Carlo Zecchi, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine,
Leonard Slatkin, David Oistrach, Lamberto Gardelli, Yehudi Menuhin, Vaclav Neumann, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Prêtre, Max Rudolf, Dennis Russell Davies and many more.
In the popular field, he had performed with Arthur Fiedler, Henry Mancini, Meredith Wilson, Doc Severinsen, Percy Faith, Johnny Green, Duke Ellington, Victor Borge, Danny Kaye, Murray Korda, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams. He also worked in Hollywood studios recording music for movies.
Han-Gorski has performed extensively as a soloist in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, England, Ireland, Israel, South Korea and South Africa.
His first major position was Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera National Company followed by Assistant Concertmaster (2nd desk) with the Cleveland Orchestra and Concertmaster with the Syracuse Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra.
During his six seasons with the Minnesota Orchestra, he appeared over 40 times as a soloist, both winter and summer, with the last concert performing the Brahms Double Concerto in Orchestra Hall with the cellist Tony Elliot.
Han-Gorski left Minnesota for Europe in 1975 and soon became the concertmaster of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra for the next 25 years as well as the concertmaster of the Vienna Chamber Opera (Wiener Kammeroper).
With a flexible schedule in Vienna, he also appeared as guest concertmaster with such diverse orchestras as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Germany), with the Mexico City Philharmonic, with the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia (Italy).
He toured extensively as conductor and soloist with his Ensemble Virtuosi di Vienna, especially often in Italy and Spain and released several recordings as a soloist and with his Ensemble.
On two occasions, his concerts in Canada and Poland were chosen as the 'best of the season.'
Han-Gorski was given an honorary title of “Professor” for his contribution to Austrian culture by the Austrian Ministry of Education and the President of Austria.
He studied 10 languages, can communicate in eight and speaks five fluently.
In 2004 after 30 years in Vienna he returned to the Twin Cities as his base. He was busy performing until recently and is still teaching - nowadays internationally on Zoom. His former students include violinists in the Cleveland Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, Vienna Radio, Mexico City and others.
