Violinist William Shaub was appointed Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in May of 2017. Since his concerto debut with the Canton Symphony Orchestra at age 12, he has captivated audiences as a soloist, in recitals, and from the concertmaster chair. The winner of an inaugural Academy Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic and a graduate of the Juilliard School, he has been praised in the press as “a wonderful ambassador for music” (Cleveland Classical) and for performances “full of passion and energy, exquisitely rendered with refined details that escape one in recordings.” He made his recital debut in New York as one of ten “Exceptional Young Artists” at the 2013 Starling-DeLay Symposium at Juilliard.
William Shaub’s solo appearances include recent performances with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra, and in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, and Sanders Theatre at Harvard. He made his concerto debut as Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in 2019 under the baton of conductor Mei-Ann Chen, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Since then, he has performed concertos by Sibelius, Barber, Bach, Vivaldi, and a vast solo repertoire for violin and orchestra from Philip Glass to Schnittke and Piazzolla.
In addition to performing as substitute with the New York Philharmonic and with the London Symphony Orchestra on tour, William Shaub has served as guest Concertmaster of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (U.K.), the Jacksonville Symphony (Florida), and as concertmaster of festival orchestras, including Spoleto and the Music Academy of the West. He has worked with many of the world’s most important conductors, with notable performances and recordings under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Aram Demirjian, and Nicholas Collon.
His commitments to chamber music include performances at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Breckenridge Music Festival, the Vail Dance Festival, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Da Camera of Houston, and the Focus! Festival for contemporary music at Juilliard. He has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with members of the New York Philharmonic, and enjoys collaborations with artists such as Robert Levin, Jon Kimura Parker, Robin Sutherland, Cho-Liang Lin, Vadim Repin, Desmond Hoebig, Ritchie Hawley, and Kevin Class. He has also toured internationally as a member of the critically-acclaimed ensemble Sejong Soloists.
A recipient of the Louis Persinger Scholarship as a student at the Juilliard School, William Shaub studied with Cho-Liang Lin and Masao Kawasaki at Juilliard, receiving the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in five years. He also studied with Emilio Llinas, Stephen Clapp, and chamber music with Sylvia Rosenberg. Prior to his appointment as concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, he was a student in the Artist Diploma program at Rice University.
His longstanding dedication to community service through musical outreach includes organizing a ten-year series of benefit concerts for the United Nations’ Adopt-a-Minefield Campaign, through which more than 40 prosthetic limbs were purchased for landmine victims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together with his colleagues in the violin section of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, he organized a memorable benefit concert featuring J.S. Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, benefiting FISH Hospitality Pantries. He performs on a violin made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume from 1865.
