Harris Shilakowsky

Shilakowsky & the S-band is the crossroad of musical roads travelled by violinist, singer-songwriter, Harris Shilakowsky. His lyrics reflect current events and his life as a musician and as a husband, a father and a concerned citizen of the world. From the classical violin, singing in choruses and bands, and playing in orchestras and jazz groups...then backing up people that he listened to in his childhood...Rod Stewart, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and touring & recording with other great singers and entertainers. Played with the Boston Pops under film composer John Williams.

From the classical violin, singing in choruses and bands, and playing in orchestras and jazz groups...then backing up people that he listened to in his childhood...Rod Stewart, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and touring & recording with other great singers and entertainers. Played with the Boston Pops under film composer John Williams.

His music is flavored by his Jewish culture and the music of America...jazz, rock, pop, rap, blues, bluegrass, country, and classical music.

He studied piano with his mother, Rina Shiller beginning at age 5. Then began violin at age 9. He played organ in his teen years, mostly blues and rock, while performing with orchestras and singing in chorus. While attending New England Conservatory of Music, he played with Wes Riley's jazz band. While at Yale University, working on his master's degree, he began a long series of orchestral jobs, spending a year off working as concertmaster of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

After graduating from Yale, he performed with orchestras including Buffalo Philharmonic, Nashville Symphony, where he also was a session musician, Grand Rapids, New Orleans, Charleston SC, and London Symphony. Then for a period, he played for a number of musical theater production companies, touring in Germany and the US and working in theaters in Boston, Providence and NYC.

As a free-lancer, he was a back up musician for many different artists including Rod Stewart, Pavarotti, Moody Blues, Charlotte Church, the Irish Tenors, Bobby Vinton, KD Lang, Johnny Mathis, Smoky Robinson, Sarah Brightman, Anne Murray, Linda Ronstadt, and many jazz and rock musicians.