Adele Anthony is an
Australian violinist and teacher born (in Tasmania) on October 1, 1970. She is known for having won first prize in the
(fifth) Carl Nielsen violin competition in 1996 (at age 25) and for being the
wife of Gil Shaham, with whom she frequently performs. Twelve years before that, at age 13, she had
won the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Instrumental Competition – she
played the Sibelius concerto on that occasion.
Soon afterward, she played the Tchaikovsky concerto in a concert
sponsored by the same organization. That
concert in 1983 is considered her Australian public debut. Anthony began her violin studies at age
3. She studied at the University of
Adelaide with Beryl Kimber. In 1987, she
came to the U.S. to pursue further study at Juilliard (New York City) where her
main teachers were Hyo Kang, Felix Galimir, and Dorothy Delay. According to one source, she studied at
Juilliard for eight years, having received funding from several benefactors, including
the Starling Foundation. However, she
was an active concert artist even while she was still at Juilliard and still
maintains a very active solo concert career.
Her repertoire is very extensive and includes all of the standard violin
literature in addition to many contemporary works less frequently heard by
audiences. As do almost all concert
violinists nowadays, Anthony also plays chamber music at various festivals
throughout the world, but especially in New York, where she resides. She has recorded for various labels and among
her notable recordings are those featuring violin concertos by Carl Nielsen, Ross
Edwards, and Nicolo Paganini. Anthony
plays a Stradivarius violin constructed in 1728. Here is one of her YouTube audio files featuring
the work of Ross Edwards – a refreshing and unusual new work for the violin. A few Stradivarius violins (perhaps one
hundred or so) have been given names which have remained attached to the
instruments for many years but – as far as I know – this one has no specific
name. I have heard it up close a number
of times and it has a wonderful sound. Perhaps
later on, it will be known as the Anthony Stradivarius.
Sascha Jacobsen was a
Russian violinist and teacher born (in Helsinki, Finland) on December 10, 1895. Jacobsen’s birthdate is also given as
November 29, 1895 and December 11, 1895.
Little is known of his early life.
It has been said that he grew up in St Petersburg. He has been often confused with another
violinist (from Philadelphia) named Sascha Jacobson. A humorous song written by George Gershwin in
1921 includes his (first) name (along with those of Jascha, Toscha, and Mischa
– Russian violinists Heifetz, Seidel, and Elman, respectively.) It is known that he enrolled at Juilliard in
1908 where his main teacher was Franz Kneisel.
He graduated from Juilliard (Institute of Musical Art) in June of 1914
(some sources say 1915.) He was 18 years
old. (A fellow-student of his was Elias
Breeskin.) In February of 1915, Jacobsen
played parts of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnol at an Aeolian Hall concert. On November 27, 1915, he made his official
recital debut at Aeolian Hall playing (among other things) Saint Saens’ third
concerto. After the announced program
was concluded, he had to play numerous encores and he received very favorable
reviews the following day. He first
soloed with the New York Philharmonic on March 9, 1919 (at age 23) playing
Bruch’s first concerto with Walter Damrosch conducting. Jacobsen concertized as a soloist between
1915 and 1925. He began teaching at
Juilliard in 1926. After being hired, he
almost immediately formed the Musical Art Quartet which disbanded in 1945,
after almost 20 years of concert activity.
Recordings of this quartet are not hard to find. Jacobsen also did solo recordings, although
mostly of short works for violin and piano.
A well-known recording of his is the Chausson concerto for string
quartet, violin, and piano with Jascha Heifetz as violin soloist. You can listen to that recording here. He moved to Los Angeles (California, USA) in
1946 and taught at the Los Angeles Conservatory but at other music schools as
well. From September 1947 and May 1949,
he was guest concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Some sources say he was concertmaster up to
1952 but I could not confirm that. It
has been said that Albert Einstein was one of Jacobsen’s pupils. (Einstein also took lessons from Toscha
Seidel.) Jacobsen’s most famous pupils
are probably Julius Hegyi and Zvi Zeitlin.
Among the violins he played are the Red Diamond Stradivarius (1732), the
Cessole Stradivarius (1716), the Windsor Stradivarius (1717), a GB Guadagnini
(1779), another GB Guadagnini (1772), and a Del Gesu Guarnerius constructed in
1732. Jacobsen died on March 19, 1972,
at age 76.
