A lifetime later, violin virtuoso Shaham ready for Tucson encore

Violin virtuoso Gil Shaham was nearly half his 46 years when he last stood on a Tucson stage and played a concert with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as part of the 1996-97 UA Presents season at Centennial Hall.

So I guess it’s safe to say, wow, that was a lifetime ago, especially if you’re a student at the University of Arizona or younger and you plan to be in the audience when Shaham finally finds his way back to Tucson this weekend.

If his last Tucson concert was any indication — the Star reviewer gushed that Shaham, then 24, “put on a dazzling display of Vivaldi’s picture-painting” and “hopped about his strings in the storms of ‘Summer,’ coaxed a warm, mellow tone from his Strad in the sweet solo in ‘Winter,’ changed into a country fiddler in ‘Spring,’ and even provided a comic touch in the free-feeling downward swoops presumably representing drunken deviation in ‘Autumn’” — we are in for a thrill ride.

Shaham will make his encore guesting with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on Friday, Jan. 12, under the baton of TSO music director José Luis Gomez. The program is anchored by Shaham’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Also on the all-Russian program: Glazunov’s Overture “Solennelle,” Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise for Orchestra and a Tchaikovsky two-fer — the “Romeo and Juliet” Overture segueing into his breathtakingly gorgeous Concerto.

Friday’s 7:30 p.m. concert at the Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., is a one-night-only affair. Tickets are $45 to $95 through ticketmaster.com