New appointments and promotions in strings department signal exciting new era
With the hiring this year of Hagai Shaham and Ralph Kirshbaum and the promotion of Midori as chair of the strings program, a new era has begun at the USC Thornton School of Music. “Any change of teacher must bring, by definition, different points of view and different emphases,” said Kirshbaum, whose appointment as holder of the Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello made international headlines in November.