For Immediate Release

WOLF TRAP CELEBRATES THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY

OF ITS HISTORIC GERMAN BARN WITH A CONCERT FEATURING

VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM AND PIANIST AKIRA EGUCHI ON DECEMBER 2

VIENNA, VA (October 30, 2025) — Wolf Trap will honor the 300th anniversary of its historic German Barn with a special evening of music performed by Gil Shaham, one of the world’s foremost violinists, and distinguished pianist Akira Eguchi on Tuesday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m. Presented in the intimate setting of The Barns at Wolf Trap, the program includes Leclair’s Sonata in D Major, Op. 9, No. 3 “Tombeau,” Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons (published in 1725, the same year the barn was built), Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23, and Fauré’s Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 13.

Built in 1725 in Schoharie County, New York, by German immigrant Johann Peter Kniskern, the German Barn stands today as a powerful link to the past. The music played in it today resonates in its timber frame, hand-hewn beams, and “swing beam” design, all of which reflect the ingenuity and resilience of early American architecture. Two and a half centuries after its construction, Wolf Trap founder Catherine Filene Shouse envisioned the barn as a centerpiece of artistic life. 

Shouse worked with Richard Babcock, a specialist in historical structures, to locate the barn, and with architect Mary Otis Stevens to oversee its relocation and transformation into a performance space. The barn was carefully dismantled, transported to Virginia, and reassembled beam by beam beside a Scottish barn built in the 1790s. Together, they became The Barns at Wolf Trap, one of the most distinctive performance venues in the United States. Since opening in 1981, The Barns has become an essential part of Wolf Trap’s identity, with performances of opera, chamber music, jazz, folk, and more presented year-round in the venue. The intimate scale of the space allows listeners to experience artists with exceptional clarity and authenticity, creating a unique bond between performers and audience members.

Violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Akira Eguchi have collaborated in concerts and recordings internationally for many years, with Shaham’s precise technique and expressive phrasing consistently supported by Eguchi’s attentive and balanced accompaniment. The San Francisco Classical Voice praised “the power of the Shaham-Eguchi duo, whose collective tone is like a binding ingredient that pulls the whole thing into cohesion,” a quality that has made their performances models of clarity, precision, and musical unity. 

This concert is part of a special event that includes prime orchestra seating and a post-show celebration dinner. Proceeds from this event support Wolf Trap’s arts and community programs, which reach over half a million people of all ages annually. Tickets can be purchased HERE.

The 2025-26 season of Chamber Music at The Barns, curated by newly appointed Artistic Advisor Daniel Hope, reflects Wolf Trap’s dedication to both established and emerging voices and showcases a wide range of repertoire. 

Following The Barns special 300th anniversary performance, the season continues with musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), violinists Danbi Um and Julian Rhee, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellists Nicholas Canellakis and Jonathan Swensen performing works for strings that depart from the traditional quartet, revealing the color, dialogue, and expressive range of string writing across three centuries (January 30).

Grammy Award-winning Imani Winds perform works that fuse classical chamber music with the rhythms, melodies, and colors of jazz, folk, and popular traditions from around the world (February 8).

CMS musicians flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, oboist Juri Vallentin, clarinetist David Shifrin, bassoonist Peter Kolkay, horn player David Byrd-Marrow, and pianist Michael Stephen Brown perform distinctive 19th- and 20th-century chamber works for winds (March 1).

Chamber Music at The Barns’ new Artistic Advisor, violinist Daniel Hope, makes his Wolf Trap debut performing landmark works of the piano trio repertoire with pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel (March 8).

The Aznavoorian Sisters perform a program of works for cello and piano that reflects their Armenian heritage (March 27).

CMS closes the season with Quintet Revelations, a program exploring composers from the Romantic era to today who have shaped the piano quintet form, featuring violinists Chad Hoopes and Richard Lin, violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, cellist Dmitri Atapine, and pianist Wu Han (April 11). 

Learn more about the Chamber Music at The Barns season here.

300TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE BARNS AT WOLF TRAP



Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 7:30 PM

The Barns at Wolf Trap | 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, VA

Gil Shaham, violin

Akira Eguchi, piano

Leclair: Sonata in D Major, Op. 9, No. 3 “Tombeau” 

Vivaldi: “Winter” from The Four Seasons 

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23

Fauré: Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 13 

Concert tickets start at $71.50 (fees included). 


Sponsorship packages for the special event begin at $2,000. Individual reservations are $600 each and include prime orchestra concert seating and the post show celebration dinner.

ABOUT GIL SHAHAM



Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time, celebrated for his flawless technique and generosity of spirit. Renowned as an American master, he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Israel, Los Angeles, and New York Philharmonics. Recent projects include performances and a recording of Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and recitals with his longtime duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi. He has also held multi-year residencies with the orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore.

Shaham has recorded more than two dozen concerto and solo albums, earning multiple Grammy Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice honors. Many appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His recordings “1930s Violin Concertos, Vol. 2” and Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights were both Grammy-nominated.

Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and raised in Israel, Shaham studied at Juilliard and Columbia University. His many honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year.” He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and a c.1719 Stradivari.

ABOUT AKIRA EGUCHI



Since his acclaimed New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1992, pianist Akira Eguchi has performed in major music centers across the United States, Europe, and Asia. In the US, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the Kennedy Center; abroad, at Musikverein (Vienna), Barbican Centre (London), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Herkulessaal (Munich), Tonhalle (Zurich), and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam). He has performed for President Clinton at the White House, presented by Isaac Stern, and for the Emperor and Empress of Japan in Tokyo. A frequent recitalist and chamber musician, he collaborates regularly with violinists Gil Shaham, Anne Akiko Meyers, Akiko Suwanai, Kyoko Takezawa, and others.

Eguchi has appeared on 45 recordings for labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Denon, and BMG. Many of his 11 solo albums were named “Best New Release of the Month” by Recording Arts Magazine. He performs on the 1912 New York Steinway “CD75,” once played by Vladimir Horowitz and now owned by Takagi Klavier of Tokyo.

Also an active composer and arranger, Eguchi’s works are published by Zen-On and International Music Company. Born in Tokyo, he studied at Tokyo University of the Arts and Juilliard, where he earned his master’s degree.

ABOUT WOLF TRAP



Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington DC area, as well as nationally. Wolf Trap features three performance venues: the outdoor Filene Center including the Meadow Stage, and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, located at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and The Barns at Wolf Trap, located down the road from the national park and adjacent to the Center for Education at Wolf Trap. The Filene Center, Meadow Stage, and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods are operated in partnership with the National Park Service and annually showcase an extensive array of diverse artists, ranging from pop, country, folk, and blues to classical music, dance, and theatre, as well as multimedia presentations, from May through September. The Barns at Wolf Trap is operated by Wolf Trap Foundation year-round, and during the summer months is home to the Grammy-nominated Wolf Trap Opera, one of America’s outstanding professional training programs for early career opera singers. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, and a nationally recognized internship program.

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