Antonio Stradivari, by Edgar Bundy, 1893: a romanticized image of a craftsman-hero

Geigenzettel from Stradivari

The name Stradivarius is associated with violins and cellos built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is disputed.^[1] The name "Stradivarius" has become a superlative often associated with excellence; to be called "the Stradivari" of any field is to be deemed the finest there is. The fame of Stradivarius instruments is widespread, appearing in numerous works of fiction.

Construction[link]

While Stradivari's techniques have long been up for debate^{[citation needed]} and not fully understood by modern craftsmen and scientists, it is known for certain that the wood used included spruce for the top, willow for the internal blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. There has been conjecture that this wood was treated with several types of minerals, including potassium borate (borax), sodium and potassium silicate, and vernice bianca, a varnish composed of Gum arabic, honey, and egg white. He made his instruments using an inner form, unlike the French copyists, such as Vuillaume, who employed an outer form. It is clear from the number of forms throughout his career that he experimented with some of the dimensions of his instruments.^[2]

Market value[link]

A Stradivarius made in the 1680s, or during Stradivari's 'Long Pattern' period from 1690 to 1700, could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars at today's prices. The 1697 Molitor^[3] Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte (it did belong to a general in his army, Count Gabriel-Jean-Joseph Molitor), sold for $3,600,000 in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions, then a new world record.^[4][5]

Depending on condition, instruments made during Stradivari's "golden period" from 1700 to about 1725^[6] can be worth millions of dollars. In 2011, his "Lady Blunt" violin from 1721, which is in pristine condition, was sold at Tarisio auctions for £9.8 million, or about $15.9 million (it is named after Lord Byron's granddaughter Lady Anne Blunt, who owned it for 30 years). It was sold by the Nippon Music Foundation in aid of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami appeal.^[7]

Comparisons in sound quality[link]

Above all, these instruments are famous for the quality of sound they produce. However, the many blind tests from 1817^[8][9] to the present (as of 2012^[10] ) have never found any difference in sound between Stradivari's violins and high-quality violins in comparable style of other makers and periods, nor has acoustic analysis.^[11][12] In a particularly famous test on a BBC Radio 3 program in 1977, the violinists Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and the violin expert and dealer Charles Beare tried to distinguish between the "Chaconne" Stradivarius, a 1739 Guarneri del Gesú, an 1846 Vuillaume, and a 1976 British violin played behind a screen by a professional soloist. The two violinists were allowed to play all the instruments first. None of the listeners identified more than two of the four instruments. Two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius.^[13] Violinists and others have criticized these tests on various grounds such as that they are not double-blind (in most cases), the judges are often not experts, and the sounds of violins are hard to evaluate objectively and reproducibly.^[12]

In a test in 2009, the British violinist Matthew Trusler played his 1711 Stradivarius, said to be worth two million U.S. dollars, and four modern violins made by the Swiss violin-maker Michael Rhonheimer. One of Rhonheimer's violins, made with wood that the Empa researcher Francis Schwarze had treated with fungi, received 90 of the 180 votes for the best tone, while the Stradivarius came in second with just 39 votes. The majority (113) of the listeners misidentified the winning violin as the Stradivarius.^[14][15][16]

In a double-blind test in 2012^[17][18] published in the study "Player preferences among new and old violins",^[10] expert players could not distinguish old from new instruments by playing them for a short time in a small room.^[19] In an additional test, performed in a concert hall, one of the Stradivarius violins placed first, but one of the participants stated that "the audience in the concert hall were essentially equivocal on which instruments were better in each of the pair-wise instrument comparisons" and "I could tell slight differences in the instruments…but overall they were all great. None of them sounded substantially weaker than the others" ^[20]

While many world-class soloists play violins by Antonio Stradivari, there are notable exceptions. For example, Christian Tetzlaff formerly played "a quite famous Strad", but switched to a violin made in 2002 by Stefan-Peter Greiner. He states that the listener cannot tell that his instrument is modern, and he regards it as excellent for Bach and better than a Stradivarius for "the big Romantic and 20th-century concertos."^[21]

Theories and reproduction attempts[link]

The Antonio Stradivari violin of 1703 on exhibit, behind glass, at the Musikinstrumentenmuseum, Berlin

Nonetheless, some maintain that the very best Stradivari have unique superiorities.^[22] Various attempts at explaining these supposed qualities have been undertaken, most results being unsuccessful or inconclusive. Over the centuries, numerous theories have been presented – and debunked – including an assertion that the wood was salvaged from old cathedrals. Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, has proved this false.

A more modern theory attributes tree growth during a time of global cold temperatures during the Little Ice Age associated with unusually low solar activity of the Maunder Minimum, circa 1645 to 1750, during which cooler temperatures throughout Europe are believed to have caused stunted and slowed tree growth, resulting in unusually dense wood.^[23] Further evidence for this "Little Ice Age theory" comes from a simple examination of the dense growth rings in the wood used in Stradivari's instruments.^[24] Two researchers – University of Tennessee tree-ring scientist Henri Grissino-Mayer and Lloyd Burckle, a Columbia University climatologist – published in the journal Dendrochronologia their conclusions supporting the theory on increased wood density.^[25]

In 2008 Dutch researchers announced further evidence that wood density caused the claimed high quality of these instruments. After examining the violins with X-rays, the researchers found that these violins all have extremely consistent density, with relatively low variation in the apparent growth patterns of the trees that produced this wood.^[26]

Yet another possible explanation is that the wood originated in and was harvested from the forests of northern Croatia.^[27] This maple wood is known for its extreme density resulting from the slow growth caused by harsh Croatian winters. Croatian wood was a commodity traded by Venetian merchants of the era, and is used today by local luthiers and craftsfolk for musical instruments.

Some research points to wood preservatives used in that day as contributing to the resonant qualities. Joseph Nagyvary^[28][29] reveals that he has always held the belief that there are a wide range of chemicals that will improve the violins' sound. In a 2009 study co-authored with Drs. Renald Guillemette and Clifford Spiegelman, Nagyvary managed to get hold of shavings from a Stradivarius violin and examined them: burning small amounts to find their chemical composition showed that the wood shavings contained "borax, fluorides, chromium and iron salts."^[30] He also found that the wood had decayed a little, to the extent that the filter plates in the pores between the wood's component tracheids had rotted away, perhaps while the wood was stored in or under water in the Venice lagoon before Stradivarius used it.

Dr. Steven Sirr, a radiologist, worked with researchers to perform a CT scan of a Stradivari known as the "Betts." Data regarding the differing densities of woods used were then used to create a reproduction instrument.^[31]

Stradivari instruments[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hill, William Henry; Hill, Arthur F.; Hill, Alfred Ebsworth (1902). Antonio Stradivari, His Life and Work (1644-1737). London: W.E. Hill & Sons. OCLC 8179349. 
• Faber, Toby (2004). Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50848-1. 
• Vannes, Rene (1985) [1951]. Dictionnaire Universel del Luthiers (vol.3). Bruxelles: Les Amis de la musique. OCLC 53749830. 
• William, Henley (1969). Universal Dictionary of Violin & Bow Makers. Brighton; England: Amati. ISBN 0-901424-00-5. 
• Walter Hamma, Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst, Wilhelmshaven 1993, ISBN 3-7959-0537-0
• Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari 1644–1737, Herbert K. Goodkind, Larchmont, New York, 1972.
• How Many Strads?, Ernest N. Doring, William Lewis & Son, Chicago, 1945
• Millant, Roger (1972) (in French). J. B. Vuillaume: Sa Vie et son Oeuvre. London: W.E. Hill. OCLC 865746. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stradivarius

• A FourDoc (short on-line documentary) about a group of violin makers making a violin in the original spec of the maurin Stradivarius in just five days
• What makes a Stradivarius so Great?
• Carleen Hutchins obituary, today's master violin maker who tried to emulate Stradivarius Los Angeles Times, issue August 18, 2009
• Cozio.com Online database of instruments by Antonio Stradivari.
• Cheniston K. Roland, Discography (incomplete) of Stradivarius recordings
• Mark Levine, "Medici of the Meadowlands", The New York Times 3 August 2003 Herbert R. Axelrod's Stravarius collection.
• Chladni patterns for visualizing violin plate resonance patterns
• Stradivari Violin Forms A detailed study of Stradivari's molds and drawings kept in the Cremona Museum..
• How Stradivari and Guarneri got their music discusses the chemical techniques used to figure out what makes these instruments' unique sound. From the February 1, 2007 issue of Analytical Chemistry
• Gough, Colin (April 2000). "Science and the Stradivarius". Physics Web. Institute of Physics Publishing. http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/13/4/8. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
• Grovier, Kelly (22 August 2004). "Biography of Antonio Stradivari". The Observer. http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,,1288082,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
• Hanscom, Michael (9 December 2003). "Stradivarius' Secret". Eclecticism. http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/12/09/stradivarius-secret/. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
• An image of the scroll of a Stradivarius
• "The Case of the Missing Stradivarius," an annotated historical novel by author Emanuel E. Garcia which investigates the secrets of Stradivari violins and musical virtuosity.

Yo-Yo Ma 馬友友
Ma plays the cello during the "Presentation of the Crystal Award" at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 25, 2008.
Background information
Born	(1955-10-07) October 7, 1955 (age 56) Paris, France
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Cellist, composer, pedagogue
Instruments	Cello, piano, viola, violin
Years active	fl. ca. 1961–present
Labels	CBS, RCA, Sony Classical
Associated acts	Silk Road Ensemble
Website	yo-yoma.com
Notable instruments
Violoncello Davydov 1712 Stradivarius Domenico Montagnana 1733 Luis and Clark

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American^[1] cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001^[2] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.^[3] Ma is regarded by some as the most famous cellist of the modern age.^[4]

Early life[link]

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University. His family moved to New York when he was five years old.

At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before settling on the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was seven.^[5][6] At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Ma attended Trinity School in New York but transferred to the Professional Children's School which he graduated at fifteen years of age. ^[7]He appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.

A painting featuring Yo-Yo Ma hanging in Currier House, his residence at Harvard University

Ma studied at the Juilliard School at age nine with Leonard Rose and briefly attended Columbia University before ultimately enrolling at Harvard University later on. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of nonagenarian cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. Ma would ultimately spend four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love with Mount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor his first summer there in 1972.^[8]

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976.^[9] In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.^[10]

Career[link]

Ma performs at the White House for (left to right, seated) President Ronald Reagan, Crown Princess Michiko and Crown Prince Akihito of Japan, and First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1987

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road, and records on the Sony Classical label.^[11] Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed Petunia, built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student that approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia, and it stuck.^[12] This cello, more than 270 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City.^[13] It was later recovered undamaged. Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré who passed it to him upon her death, and owned by the Vuitton Foundation. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player.^{[citation needed]} It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a modern cello made by Peter and Wendela Moes of Peissenberg, Germany, and one of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.^[14]

In 1997 he was featured on John Williams' soundtrack to the Hollywood film, Seven Years in Tibet. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in 2003 on that of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha. Yo-Yo Ma has also worked with world-renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone and has recorded Morricone's compositions of the Dollars Trilogy including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also has over 75 albums, 15 of which are Grammy Award winners. Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by UN then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.^[15]

On November 3, 2009, President Obama appointed Ma to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.^[16] His music was featured in the 2010 documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.^[17][18][19]

Playing style[link]

Ma with Condoleezza Rice after performing a duet at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards.

Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians.^[20] A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroque pieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushed him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece Naqoyqatsi. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

Notable live performances[link]

On July 5, 1986, Ma performed on the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC Television.^[21]. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park.

Ma performed a duet with Condoleezza Rice at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards. Ma was the first performer on September 11, 2002, at the site of the World Trade Center, while the first of the names of the dead were read in remembrance on the first anniversary of the attack on the WTC. He played the Sarabande from Bach's Suite in C minor (#5). He performed a special arrangement of Sting's "Fragile" with Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ma has also appeared as a Pennington Great Performers series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2005.

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along with Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet did play live, the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma was quoted as saying "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."^[22]

On May 3, 2009, Ma performed the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind" for solo cello and two percussionists with John Ferrari and Ayano Kataoka at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The work is based on a poetic description written for the composer of the evolution of brain into mind by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featured, at the premiere, a film of brain scans provided by Hanna Damasio plus other images, coordinated with the music during the performance.

On August 29, 2009, Ma performed at the funeral mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Pieces he performed included the Sarabande movement from Bach's Cello Suite No. 6, and Franck's Panis Angelicus with Placido Domingo.^[23]

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a noted fan of The Beatles, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello.

On October 16, 2011, Ma performed at the memorial for Steve Jobs held in Stanford University's Memorial Church.^[24]

In 2011, Ma performed with American dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley in the United States and in China at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.^[25]

Media appearances[link]

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, Arthur, as well as on The West Wing (episode "Noël", in which he performed the prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 at a Christmas dinner at the White House), Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible", Ma, (voiced by Hank Azaria) runs after Homer Simpson along with many other frequent guests of PBS.

He also starred in the visual accompaniment to his recordings of Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.

Ma was also seen with former Apple Inc. and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs. Ma was often invited to press events for Jobs's companies, and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer.

Ma was a guest on the Not My Job segment of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.^[26]

On October 27, 2008, Ma appeared as a guest and performer on The Colbert Report.^[27] He was also a show's guest on November 1, 2011, where he performed songs from The Goat Rodeo Sessions with fellow musicians Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.^[28]

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America, in which Ma made an appearance, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, "Yo", had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.^[29][30]

Personal life[link]

Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor, a German language professor, in 1977. He proposed outside her apartment. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily, and reside in Winchester, Massachusetts.^[31] Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, who was also born in Paris, is a violinist married to Michael Dadap, a New York–based guitarist from the Philippines.^[32]

Discography[link]

Awards and recognitions[link]

Avery Fisher Prize

• 1978

Award of Distinction (International Cello Festival)

• 2007

Dan David Prize

• 2006

Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) (honoris causa)

• 2005 Princeton University

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• 1996 Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios (Sony 57499)
• 1993 Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano (Sony 48191)
• 1992 Brahms: Piano Quartets Op. 25, Op. 26 (Sony 45846)
• 1987 Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations (CBS 42121)
• 1986 Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor Op. 38, and F Op. 99 (RCA 17022)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)
• 1995 The New York Album – Works of Albert, Bartók & Bloch (Sony 57961)
• 1993 Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante/Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme (Sony 48382)
• 1990 Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22/Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68 (CBS 44900)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance:

• 1985 Bach: The Unaccompanied Cello Suites (CBS 37867)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

• 1995 The New York Album, Stephen Albert: Cello Concerto (Sony 57961)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album:

• 2010 Songs of Joy & Peace (Sony Classical B001BN1V8U)
• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)
• 2001 Appalachian Journey (Sony 66782)
• 1999 Soul of the Tango – The Music of Ástor Piazzolla (Sony Classical 63122)

Glenn Gould Prize

• 1999

Kennedy Center Honor

• 2011

Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album

• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)

Léonie Sonning Music Prize

• 2006

National Medal of Arts

• 2001^[2]

Presidential Medal of Freedom

• Nominated: November 17, 2010^[33]
• Awarded: February 15, 2011^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Asian Americans portal
	Biography portal
	Music portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yo-Yo Ma

• Official Website
• Yo-Yo Ma at Allmusic
• About Us, The Children's Orchestra Society, ChildrensOrch.org, 2007
• Yo-Yo Ma in Conversation from WGBH Radio Boston
• Yo-Yo Ma Interview on Time.com, October 2008
• Yo-Yo Ma Podcast Series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks
• Yo-Yo Ma TV Interview with Ennio Morricone from C Music TV
• 2006 Dan David Prize laureate
• Welcome to Baku: Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Ensemble with Alim Gasimov and Fargana," by Aida Huseinova in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:2 (Summer 2006), p. 14

From the film Stage Door Canteen, 1943

Signature of Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE (22 April 1916 – 12 March 1999) was an American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985. He is often considered to be one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.

Early life and career[link]

Yehudi Menuhin with Bruno Walter (1931). According to Henry A. Murray, Menuhin wrote: "Actually, I was gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to 'retire' in this way. I was also thinking that my life was tied up with the instrument and would I do it justice?" (Yehudi Menuhin, personal communication, 31 October 1993).

Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City, United States, to Bielorussian Jewish parents from what is now Belarus. His sisters were the concert pianist and human rights worker Hephzibah Menuhin and the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin. Through his father Moshe Menuhin, a former rabbinical student and anti-Zionist writer, Menuhin was descended from a distinguished rabbinical dynasty.

Menuhin began violin instruction at age four under violinist Sigmund Anker; his parents had wanted Louis Persinger to be his teacher, but Persinger refused.^[1] Menuhin displayed extraordinary talents at an early age. His first solo violin performance was at the age of seven with the San Francisco Symphony in 1923. Persinger then agreed to take Menuhin as a student. When the Menuhins went to Paris, Persinger suggested Yehudi go to his own teacher, Eugène Ysaÿe. He did have one lesson with Ysaÿe, but did not like his method or the fact that he was very old.^[1] Instead, he went to the Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu, after which he made several recordings with his sister Hephzibah. He was also a student of Adolf Busch. In 1929 he played in Berlin, under Bruno Walter's baton, three concerti by Bach, Brahms and Beethoven. In 1932 he recorded Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor for HMV in London, with the composer himself conducting, and between 1934 and 1936 he made the first integral recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin.

World War II musician[link]

Yehudi Menuhin performed for Allied soldiers during World War II, and accompanied English composer Benjamin Britten to perform for inmates of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, after its liberation in April 1945. He returned to Germany in 1947 to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler as an act of reconciliation, becoming the first Jewish musician to do so following the Holocaust. He said to critics within the Jewish community that he wanted to rehabilitate Germany's music and spirit. After building early success on richly romantic and tonally opulent performances, he experienced considerable physical and artistic difficulties caused by overwork during the war as well as unfocused and unstructured early training (reportedly he said "I watched myself on film and realized that for 30 years I'd been holding the bow wrong").^{[citation needed]} Careful practice and study combined with meditation and yoga helped him overcome many of these problems. His profound and considered musical interpretations are nearly universally acclaimed. When he finally resumed recording, he was known for practicing by deconstructing music phrases one note at a time.

He and Louis Kentner (brother-in-law of his wife, Diana) gave the first performance of William Walton's Violin Sonata, at Zürich on 30 September 1949.

Menuhin continued to perform to an advanced age, becoming known for profound interpretations of an austere quality, as well as for his explorations of music outside the classical realm.

World interactions[link]

Menuhin credited German-Jewish philosopher Constantin Brunner with providing him with "a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life".^[2]

In 1952 Menuhin met and befriended the influential yogi B. K. S. Iyengar before he had come to prominence outside India. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris and elsewhere. This was the first time that many Westerners had been exposed to yoga.

Following his role as a member of the awards jury at the 1955 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, Menuhin secured a Rockefeller Foundation grant for the financially strapped Grand Prize winner at the event, Argentine violinist Alberto Lysy. Menuhin made Lysy his first and only personal student, and the two toured extensively throughout the concert halls of Europe. The young protégé later established the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, in his honor.^[3]

Menuhin made several recordings with the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who had been criticized for conducting in Germany during the Nazi era. Menuhin defended Furtwängler, noting that the conductor had helped a number of Jewish musicians to flee Nazi Germany.

In 1962, he established the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey. He also established the music program at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, sometime around then. In 1965 he received an honorary knighthood from the British monarchy. In the same year, Australian composer Malcolm Williamson wrote a violin concerto for Menuhin. He performed the concerto many times and recorded it at its premiere at the Bath Festival in 1965. Originally known as the Bath Assembly,^[4] the festival was first directed by the impresario Ian Hunter in 1948. After the first year the city tried to run the festival itself, but in 1955 asked Hunter back. In 1959 Hunter invited Yehudi Menuhin to become artistic director of the Festival. Menuhin accepted, and retained the post until 1968.^[5]

Menuhin also had a long association with Ravi Shankar, which began with their 1966 album West Meets East. During this time, he commissioned composer Alan Hovhaness to write a concerto for violin, sitar, and orchestra to be performed by himself and Shankar. The resulting work, entitled Shambala (c. 1970), with a fully composed violin part and space for improvisation from the sitarist, is the earliest known work for sitar with western symphony orchestra, predating Shankar’s own sitar concertos, but Menuhin and Shankar never recorded it. Menuhin also worked with famous jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli in the 1970s on Jalousie, an album of pop music of the 1930s arranged in chamber style.

At the Edinburgh Festival in 1957 Menuhin premiered Priaulx Rainier's violin concerto Due Canti e Finale, which he had commissioned Rainier to write. He also commissioned her last work, Wildlife Celebration, which he performed in aid of Gerald Durrell's Wildlife Conservation Trust.

In 1983 Menuhin and Robert Masters founded the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. Now one of the world's leading competitions for young violinists, many of its prizewinners have gone on to become prominent violinists, including Tasmin Little, Nikolaj Znaider, Ilya Gringolts, Julia Fischer, Daishin Kashimoto and Lara St. John.

In 1991 Menuhin was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize by the Israeli Government. In the Israeli Knesset he gave an acceptance speech in which he criticised Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank:

"This wasteful governing by fear, by contempt for the basic dignities of life, this steady asphyxiation of a dependent people, should be the very last means to be adopted by those who themselves know too well the awful significance, the unforgettable suffering of such an existence. It is unworthy of my great people, the Jews, who have striven to abide by a code of moral rectitude for some 5,000 years, who can create and achieve a society for themselves such as we see around us but can yet deny the sharing of its great qualities and benefits to those dwelling amongst them."^[6]

In 1997 Menuhin and Ian Stoutzker founded the charity Live Music Now, the largest outreach music project in the UK. Live Music Now pays and trains professional musicians to work in the community, bringing the experience to those who rarely get an opportunity to hear or see live music performance.

Menuhin's pupils included Nigel Kennedy, Nicola Benedetti, and the violists Paul Coletti and Csaba Erdélyi. He owned and played several notable instruments; arguably the most famous of which is the Lord Wilton Guarneri del Gesù (1742).

In the 1980s Menuhin wrote and oversaw the creation of a "Music Guides" series of books; each covered a musical instrument, with one on the human voice. Menuhin wrote some, while others were edited by different authors.

Later career[link]

Menuhin with Stéphane Grappelli taken by Allan Warren, 1976

Menuhin regularly returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes performing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. One of the more memorable later performances was of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, which Menuhin had recorded with the composer in 1932.

On 22 April 1978, along with Stéphane Grappelli, Yehudi played Pick Yourself Up, taken from the Menuhin & Grappelli Play Berlin, Kern, Porter and Rodgers & Hart album as the interval act at the 23rd Eurovision Song Contest for TF1. The performance came direct from the studios of TF1 and not that of the venue (Palais des Congrès), where the contest was being held.

Menuhin hosted the PBS telecast of the gala opening concert of the San Francisco Symphony from Davies Symphony Hall in September 1980.

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Menuhin made jazz recordings with Stéphane Grappelli, classical recordings with L. Subramaniam and albums of Eastern music with the great sitarist Ravi Shankar. In 1983 he founded the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Folkestone, Kent.

His recording contract with EMI lasted almost 70 years and is the longest in the history of the music industry. He made his first recording at age 13 in November 1929, and his last in 1999, when he was nearly 83 years old. He recorded over 300 works for EMI, both as a violinist and as a conductor. In 2009 EMI released a 51-CD retrospective of Menuhin's recording career, titled Yehudi Menuhin: The Great EMI Recordings.

In 1990 Menuhin was the first conductor for the Asian Youth Orchestra which toured around Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong with Julian Lloyd Webber and a group of young talented musicians from all over Asia.

Personal life[link]

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin and author Paulo Coelho captured at the Annual Meeting 1999 of the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland

Yehudi Menuhin was married twice. He married Nola Nicholas, daughter of an Australian industrialist, and sister of Hephzibah Menuhin's first husband Lindsay Nicholas. They had two children, Krov and Zamira (who married pianist Fou Ts'ong). Following their 1947 divorce he married the British ballerina and actress Diana Gould, whose mother was the pianist Evelyn Suart (who had played with artists such as Eugène Ysaÿe and Karel Halíř), and whose stepfather was Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt. Menuhin and Gould had two sons, Gerard and Jeremy, a pianist. A third child died shortly after birth.

The name Yehudi means 'Jew' in Hebrew. In an interview republished in October 2004, he recounted to New Internationalist magazine the story of his name:

Obliged to find an apartment of their own, my parents searched the neighbourhood and chose one within walking distance of the park. Showing them out after they had viewed it, the landlady said: "And you'll be glad to know I don't take Jews." Her mistake made clear to her, the antisemitic landlady was renounced, and another apartment found. But her blunder left its mark. Back on the street my mother made a vow. Her unborn baby would have a label proclaiming his race to the world. He would be called "The Jew."^[7]

Menuhin died in Martin Luther Hospital,^[8] Berlin, Germany, from complications of bronchitis.

Soon after his death, the Royal Academy of Music acquired the Yehudi Menuhin Archive, one of the most comprehensive collections ever assembled by an individual musician.

Violins[link]

Menuhin used a number of famous violins including the Giovanni Bussetto 1680, the Giovanni Grancino 1695, the Guarneri filius Andrea 1703, the Soil Stradivarius, the Prince Khevenhüller 1733 Stradivari, the Guarneri del Gesù 1739, and the Lord Wilton 1742 Guarneri del Gesù.

Awards and honours[link]

• Freedom of the City (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1965)
• In 1965, while he was still an American citizen, Menuhin was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which entitled him to use the postnominal letters KBE, but not to style himself Sir Yehudi. After Menuhin gained British citizenship in 1985, his knighthood was upgraded to a substantive one, and he became Sir Yehudi Menuhin KBE.
• The Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding (1968).^[9]
• The Léonie Sonning Music Prize (Denmark, 1972)
• Nominated as president of the Elgar Society (1983)
• The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (1984)
• The Kennedy Center Honors (1986)
• Appointed a member of the Order of Merit (1987)
• His recording of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor with Julian Lloyd Webber won the 1987 BRIT Award for Best British Classical Recording (BBC Music Magazine named this recording "the finest version ever recorded").
• The Glenn Gould Prize (1990), in recognition of his lifetime of contributions
• Ambassador of Goodwill (UNESCO, 1992)
• In 1993 Menuhin was made a life peer, as Baron Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon in the County of Surrey.^[10]
• The Konex Decoration (Konex Foundation, Argentina, 1994)
• Honorary Doctorates from 20 universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Bath (1969).^[11]
• In the European Parliament in Brussels, the room in which concerts and performances are held is called the "Yehudi Menuhin Space".
• Menuhin was honored as "a Freeman" of the cities of Edinburgh, Bath, Reims and Warsaw.
• He held the Gold Medals of the cities of Paris, New York and Jerusalem.

Cultural references[link]

The catchphrase "Who's Yehoodi?" popular in the 1930s and 1940s was inspired by Menuhin's guest appearance on a radio show, where Jerry Colonna turned "Yehoodi" into a widely recognized slang term for a mysteriously absent person. It eventually lost all of its original connection with Menuhin.

Yehudi Menuhin was also 'meant' to appear on The Morecambe and Wise Show but could not do so as he was 'opening at the Argyl Theatre, Birkenhead in Old King Cole'. He was replaced by Eric Morecambe in the famous "Grieg's Piano Concerto by Grieg" sketch featuring the conductor André Previn.

A picture of Menuhin as a child is sometimes used as part of a Thematic Apperception Test.^[12]

Bibliography[link]

• Menuhin, Diana (1984). Fiddler's Moll. Life With Yehudi. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-28819-0. 
• Menuhin, Yehudi (1977). Unfinished Journey. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-41051-3. 
• Menuhin, Yehudi (1997). Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later. New York: Fromm Intl. ISBN 0-88064-179-7. 
• L. Subramaniam, Y. Menuhin; Directed by Jean Henri Meunier (1999) (documentary film). Violin From the Heart (DVD). 
• Bailey, Philip (2008). Yehudiana – Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey|Book One. Australia: Fountaindale Press. ISBN 978-0-9804499-0-7. 
• Bailey, Philip (2010). Yehudiana - Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey Book Two. Australia: Fountaindale Press. ISBN 978-0-9804499-1-4. 
• Burton, Humphrey (2000). Yehudi Menuhin: a life. Northeastern. ISBN 978-1-55553-465-3. 

Films[link]

• 1943 – Menuhin was a featured performer in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen. Introduced only as "Mr. Menuhin," he performed two violin solos, "Ave Maria" and "Flight of the Bumble Bee" for an audience of servicemen, volunteer hostesses and celebrities from stage and screen.
• 1979 – The Music of Man (television series)
• The Mind of Music

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official website for Yehudi Menuhin
• Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists
• Text and pictures from Yehudi Menuhin by french film director Bruno Monsaingeon
• Yehudi Menuhin Center Saanen/Gstaad Schweiz
• Yehudiana, Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey. A book, by Philip Bailey
• International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation
• The International Music School Founded by Yehudi Menuhin
• Live Music Now – Charity founded by Yehudi Menuhin
• PBS Series American Masters Yehudi Menuhin
• YouTube-Elgar Performance
• From the Sitar to the Guitar – The 1995 concerts featuring Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar
• Youtube Paganini Concerto: Third Movement
• Youtube: Paganini's Moto Perpetuo
• Yehudi Menuhin playing duos in the parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris
• New biography (Yehudiana, a Menuhin family biography).
• Yehudi Menuhin's life in Alma
• Yehudi Menuhin interview by Bruce Duffie, January 31, 1987

Ivry Gitlis in his home

Ivry Gitlis (Hebrew: עברי גיטליס‎; born Haifa, August 25, 1922^[1]) is an Israeli violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has performed with the world's top orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic), and many of his recordings are considered classics.

Life[link]

Born in Haifa, Palestine Mandate, to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Gitlis studied violin at an early age. When violinist Bronisław Huberman first heard him play, he sent him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where Gitlis won a first prize, aged 13. His teachers include Carl Flesch, George Enescu, and Jacques Thibaud. In 1951, Gitlis made his debut in Paris.^[1]

His first recording, Concerto à la mémoire d'un ange by Alban Berg, won the Grand Prix du Disque in France.^[1]

In 1968 he participated in John Lennon's Dirty Mac project on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus program.

In 1971 Bruno Maderna wrote Piece for Ivry for him.

In 1990 Gitlis was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.^[2] His stated aim is the "support of education and culture of peace and tolerance".

Ivry Gitlis is a commentator (along with Itzhak Perlman) all the way through the DVD "The Art of Violin" (2000) which showcases performances and gives biographical details of many of the great violinists of the 20th Century.

Since the end of the sixties, Gitlis has resided in Paris, France.

At various stages in his career he played on the 1737 "Chant du Cygne" Stradivarius and the "Ysaye" Guarnerius del Gesu. Ivry currently owns the "Sancy" Stradivarius of 1713.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Shumsky, Eric, "Ageless Virtuosos Still Going Strong: Violinist Ivry Gitlis and violist Emanuel Vardi still active", The Epoch Times, July 9, 2010
• Coppey, Nicole, "Interview of Ivry Gitlis: se créer au moment de créer", Revue musicale suisse, July/August 2008

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Eric Grossman
Background information
Born	(1964-11-25) November 25, 1964 (age 47)
Origin	United States
Instruments	Bass guitar
Associated acts	K's Choice L.A. Guns

This article is about the musician. For the marathon runner, see McNaughton Park Trail Runs

Eric Grossman (b. November 25, 1964,^[1][2] New York) is an American musician, best known for playing bass and recording gold and platinum albums with the European band K's Choice.^[3][4]

Biography[link]

Grossman was born in 1964 in New York, the older of two boys. Both of his parents worked in the optical business—his father owned a shop. Grossman attended Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California, graduating in 1982. He went on to study music theory at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California, but dropped out to focus on his music. It was also at Pierce College that he met Dr. Gerald Eskalin, founder of the L.A. Jazz Choir, with whom he performed in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s he performed in the band Iannello, playing with guitarist Joel Shearer and drummer Jimmy Paxson for six years.

It was through Shearer that Grossman connected with K's Choice. Shearer had been playing with the band Super 8, which had the same manager as K's Choice. The manager recommended Grossman to the leaders of K's Choice, at a time when they were auditioning for a new bass player. Grossman won the part, and in 1997 toured with K's Choice in support of their album Paradise in Me. He then joined the band full time, and with them has recorded four gold and platinum records, including Almost Happy and Cocoon Crash. His work with the band included thousands of performances, and many appearances on European television, such as the French program Taratata. He also appeared with the band on a 1999 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Doppelgangland".

Grossman currently lives with his wife and children in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2005, Grossman has also been recording and touring with singer/songwriter Sarah Bettens, and in 2007 he began performing with Javier Mendoza. In 2011, he began playing with Dilana Smith from the hit television show, Rock Star Supernova.

Discography[link]

K's Choice bassist[link]

• 1998, Cocoon Crash, sold over 1,000,000 copies, and went platinum in Belgium and Holland
• 2001, K's Choice Live
• 2002, Almost Happy
• 2004, 10: 1993-2003 Ten Years Of K's Choice

Other[link]

• 2005, Scream, Sarah Bettens
• 2007, Shine, Sarah Bettens

Disambiguation note[link]

Eric Grossman, the bassist, has no relationship with Eric Grossman, the violinist.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• MySpace page
• http://www.ibmring1.com/Spirit/SpiritSept%2006.pdf
• http://www.kschoice.org/biography2.asp?p=3

External links[link]

• http://thechoice.free.fr/eric_us.html
• http://drusillasbtvs.tripod.com/id87.htm#eric_grossman
• http://www.todayweremember.com/birthdays/November25.php