Palling Around
Violinist Gil Shaham knows how to party, and he’s throwing a bash with a few associates on January 13, and February 6 and 9 in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. The three concerts “Gil Shaham and Friends” include appearances by the man himself; his wife, violinist Adele Anthony; violists Cynthia Phelps, Masao Kawasaki, and Paul Neubauer; cellists Alisa Weilerstein and Brinton Averil Smith; and pianists Akira Eguchi and Orli Shaham, Gil’s sister. Schumann will be featured in the first concert, but Brahms dominates the rest. For details, visit carnegiehall.org.

Christoph at Curtis
Maestro Christoph Eschenbach—in his ninth season as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and recently named music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—will lead the Curtis Symphony Orchestra through a program January 20 at the Kimmel Center. Pianist Meng-Chieh Liu will be the featured soloist in a program of Barber, Berlioz, and Dutilleux. For tickets, visit ticketphiladelphia.org.

Collective Souls
The Mimesis Ensemble, an assemblage of music grads from several major conservatories, will give the world premiere of composer David Fulmer’s Wechselströme on January 24 at the Ann Goodman Recital Hall in the Kaufman Center. Fulmer also will conduct the piece, which was written for the ensemble. Also on the program will be works from Milton Babbitt, Mohammed Fairouz, Helmut Lachenmann, and Halim El-Dabh. For details, visit mimesisensemble.org.

Critic’s Corner
Classical music critic Donald Rosenberg is suing his employer, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as well as the Musical Arts Association, which oversees the Cleveland Orchestra, for defamation, age discrimination, and violation of free speech as well as tortious interference. Rosenberg, a longtime columnist for the newspaper, was removed from his symphony beat after complaints from the orchestra that he was being too harsh on music director Franz Welser-Möst. Rosenberg has continued to work at the newspaper as an arts and entertainment reporter, but he is forbidden to write about the orchestra.