With his exquisite 1690 ex–Leopold Auer Stradivarius in hand, fast-rising violin star Vadim Gluzman joins the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this Saturday and Monday (June 5 and 7). The Ukrainian-born Israeli has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and the Munich, Dresden, and Czech philharmonic orchestras. He has also collaborated with the world’s most prominent conductors, from the late Yehudi Menuhin to Itzhak Perlman. The Guardian has called his performing “staggering” and “dramatically ferocious”, while the Washington Post praised his “commanding technique” and “visionary breadth”. This is all more than enough to make his show a must-see. But the fact that he’ll be playing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor is the clincher: Gluzman has said he has a deep affinity for the composer and revels in the painful emotion of the work. He sees it as his concerto, and we can’t wait to see him own it.