Violinist Zina Schiff, a Heifetz protégée, began her recording career as a teenager at MGM Studios, where Maurice Jarre chose her to play his solo violin score for John Frankenheimer’s film, The Fixer, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Bernard Malamud. Her début CDs were Lark Ascending and Bach/Vivaldi as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Dalia Atlas conducting. Schiff’s keen interest in American composers became evident with her first solo CD Here’s One (4-Tay Records) with pianist Cameron Grant. Selected Best of 1997 by American Record Guide, featuring premiere recordings of Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Lee Hoiby, William Grant Still, and Florence Price, it was produced by Dana Paul Perna, arranger of the Hovhannes Oror. Along with standard repertoire including Bloch, Brahms, Copland, and Franck Sonatas, Schiff and Grant also recorded premieres of sonatas by David Amram (Elijah’s Violin; 4-Tay) and Erich Zeisl (Copland/Zeisl; MSR).
Schiff soloed the New York premiere of Richard Nanes’ Rhapsody with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and its European premiere at the 1999 Budapest String Festival with the MAV Orchestra at the Dohany Street Synagogue. She introduced the Samuel Barber Concerto to many American audiences and recorded it in 2010 with the MAV Orchestra (MSR), Avlana Eisenberg conducting. She introduced Hong Kong audiences to the Copland Sonata, Israelis to William Grant Still’s Suite, and Taiwanese to the Hovhaness Violin Concerto. Of Zina’s 17 CDs to date, her three previous award-winning albums for NAXOS are American programs: Cecil Burleigh (8.559061), produced by her daughter, Cherina Carmel, with pianist Mary Barranger; Ernest Bloch’s Concerto and Suites (8.557757) with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Jose Serebrier conducting; and William Grant Still Summerland (8.559867), Avlana Eisenberg conducting.
With an international career spanning five decades on five continents, Schiff delights in championing gems of American composers.