Eugène Ysaÿe (French pronunciation: [øʒɛn iza.i]; 16 July 1858 – 12 May 1931) was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar". His brother was pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe (1865–1918), and his great-grandson is Marc Ysaÿe, drummer of rock band Machiavel.
Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe came from a background of peasants, though a large part of his family played instruments. As violinist Arnold Steinhardt describes, a legend was passed down through the Ysaÿe family about the first violin brought to the lineage:
Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (Russian: Максим Александрович Венгеров, born August 20, 1974) is a violinist, violist, and conductor who was born in the Soviet Union.
Vengerov was born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, Russia, to a Jewish family with musical tradition. At the age of 5, he began studying the violin with Borbala Hwang, and two years later – with Zakhar Bron. 1984 saw the 10-year-old Maxim go abroad for the first time; in Lublin, Poland, he won the first place at the International Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Young Violin Player Competition (years later, he recalled, "I thought Poland was somewhere at the end of the world. One does not forget such trips; no wonder I always remember Poland very fondly…"). When Bron left Russia in 1987 to teach at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, Vengerov and his mother followed him there, and did so again after Bron moved to Lübeck to open a school there.
In 1990, Vengerov proved his extraordinary talent with victory at the International Carl Flesch Competition in London. At the time, he had already studied with Z. Bron in London and Lübeck. His public appearances – both solo and with orchestras – at major European music venues sparked interest of major record labels (to date, he has recorded close to 100 compositions or cycles) and music magazines. Numerous recording prizes and “Artist of the Year” titles (incl. one from Gramophone) followed, as did the celebrated Grammy Award, Edison Award (for the recording of Shostakovich Second Concerto), and the highly prestigious “Echo Klassik” annual distinction awarded to him by the German Television in 2003 (for recital feat. compositions by J. S. Bach).
Julia Fischer (born (1983-06-15)15 June 1983) is a German classical violinist and pianist.
Julia Fischer, born in Munich, Germany, is of German-Slovakian parentage. Her mother, Viera Fischer (née Krenková), came from the German minority in Slovakia and immigrated from Košice, Slovakia to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972. Her father, Frank-Michael Fischer, a mathematician who was born in East Germany, moved in the same year from Eastern Saxony to West Germany.
Fischer began her studies before her fourth birthday, when she received her first violin lesson from Helge Thelen. A few months later she started studying the piano with her mother. Fischer said, "my mother's a pianist and I wanted to play the piano as well, but as my elder brother also played the piano, she thought it would be nice to have another instrument in the family. I agreed to try out the violin and stayed with it." She began her formal violin education at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg under the tutelage of Lydia Dubrowskaya. At the age of nine, Julia Fischer was admitted to the Munich Academy of Music, where she continues to work with Ana Chumachenco.
Gidon Kremer (Latvian: Gidons Krēmers; born February 27, 1947) is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.
Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish (his father being a Holocaust survivor) and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels; then, in 1969, second prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition (shared with Oleh Krysa) followed by first prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa; and finally first prize again in 1970 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in 1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming, serving as artistic director for 30 years. In 1996 Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, composed of young players from the Baltic region. He was also among the artistic directors of the festival "Art Projekt 92" in Munich and is director of the Musiksommer Gstaad festival in Switzerland. In 2008, he and Kremerata Baltica toured with the classical musical comedy duo Igudesman & Joo. He also made regular appearances at the Verbier Festival until the summer of 2011, when he withdrew, issuing a public complaint of excessive hype.
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (or Oistrach), Russian: Дави́д Фёдорович (Фи́шелевич) О́йстрах, David Fiodorović (Fišelević) Ojstrakh, Russian pronunciation: [dɐˌvʲid fʲodəˌrovʲɪʨ ˈojstrɐx], Ukrainian: Дави́д Фе́дорович (Фі́шелевич) О́йстрах, Davyd Fedorovych (Fishelevych) Oistrakh; September 30 [O.S. September 17] 1908 – October 24, 1974, was a renowned Soviet classical violinist.
Oistrakh collaborated with major orchestras and musicians from many parts of the world, including the Soviet Union, Europe, and the United States, and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works, including both of Dmitri Shostakovich's violin concerti, and the violin concerto by Aram Khachaturian. He is considered one of the preeminent violinists of the 20th century.
He was born in the cosmopolitan city of Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) into a Jewish family of merchants of the second guild. His father was David Kolker and his mother was Isabella Beyle (née Stepanovsky), who later on married Fishl Oistrakh. At the age of five, young Oistrakh began his studies of violin and viola as a pupil of Pyotr Stolyarsky. In his studies with Pyotr Stolyarsky he made very good friends with Daniel Shindarov, with whom he performed numerous times around the world, even after becoming famous, for students at Stolyarsky School of Music. He would eventually come to predominantly perform on violin.