Maria Dueñas

María Dueñas (Maria Dueñas Fernandez) is a Spanish violinist and composer, born (in Granada) on December 4, 2002. She is very likely the best Spanish violinist since Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908.) She is also known as a former child prodigy. She has been winning violin competitions since she was 14 years old, including the Zhuhai (China), the Vladimir Spivakov (Russia), the G.P Telemann (Poland), the Yankelevitch (Russia), the Leonid Kogan (Belgium), and the Luigi Zanuccoli (Italy) violin competitions. * (see comments below) Since she is also a composer, she writes her own cadenzas for each concerto she plays. As a member of the Hamamelis Quartet, she also won first prize at the Fidelio Chamber Music Competition in Vienna in 2017. She began her violin studies at age 5 in Spain. I do not know who her first teacher was. At age 7, she entered the Granada Conservatory. She made her local debut with the Granada Symphony at age 11, playing the first concerto of Mozart. Andrea Marcon was on the podium. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to Vienna so that she could study with Boris Kuschnir (well-known violin pedagogue) at the University for Music and Art in Graz and at the Music and Arts University in Vienna, Austria. (Graz is about a two-hour drive from Vienna, driving south.) In this effort, she was assisted by Russian violinist, Vladimir Spivakov. (Spivakov’s Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra has a very strong connection to Spain.) In September of 2019, she was named Artist of the Month by Musical America being only 16 years old. Dueñas has already concertized in many countries around the world (including the U.S.) and has played in some of the most prestigious concert halls but, since she is still a student at the University, understandably spends most of her time in Europe. Here is one of her many YouTube video performances. You can judge her virtuosity and style for yourself. Dueñas speaks four languages fluently – German, English, French, and Spanish. She is also currently studying the Russian language. Two of her violins have been a Nicolo Gagliano (1764), on loan from the German Musical Life Foundation and the Muntz Guarneri (1736) on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. I do not know if she is still using either one of those fine violins. The photo is courtesy of David Ausserhoffer.

Eduardo Asiain

Eduardo Asiain (Eduardo Hernandez Asiain) was a Spanish violinist born (in Havana, Cuba) on May 17, 1911.  He is best known for his interpretations of the works of Pablo Sarasate and for being one of the longest-lived violinists in history, in the style of Roman Totenberg.  He began his studies with his father, a violinist and composer, at a very early age.  He gave his first concert at age 7.  At age 14, after receiving first prize in violin at the National Conservatory of Havana, he became concertmaster of the Havana Symphony.  If that is factual (I could not verify it from more than one source), he joins Paul Kochanski in being the youngest concertmaster (of a professional orchestra) in history.  In 1932, Asiain, along with his family, moved to Spain.  He was 21 years old.  In Madrid, he studied with Enrique Fernandez Arbos and Antonio Fernandez Bordas.  He later graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, obtaining special mention and receiving the Pablo Sarasate Prize.  The major part of his career was spent in Europe although he did perform outside of Europe a few times.  His discography is limited although his recordings of Sarasate’s music are still highly praised.  He founded the Chamber Orchestra of San Sebastian but I could not ascertain in what year that was.  In 1968, he became first violinist of the RTVE (Spanish Corporation for Public Radio and Television) Quartet.  From 1977 onward, he received various medals and honors from the Spanish government.  He played an Amati violin constructed in 1633.  Here is a YouTube audio file of Asiain playing music by Sarasate and here is another.  Asiain died on May 11, 2010, at (almost) age 99.

Jose Lafitte

Jose Silvestre White Lafitte was a Cuban violinist and composer born on January 17, 1836 (Brahms was 3 years old.) Some sources give December 31, 1835 as his date of birth (an indication that record keeping can sometimes get sloppy.) He began studying as a child and later studied at the Paris Conservatory (1855-1871) because of encouragement and financial assistance he received from American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Delphin Alard (Pablo Sarasate's teacher) was his teacher at the conservatory. Lafitte later taught for a year at the same conservatory when Alard took a leave of absence. Later, he was made Director of the Imperial Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1877-1889) after which he returned to Paris. He concertized in Europe, Latin America, and in the U.S., where he performed with some of the major orchestras (including the New York Philharmonic) in 1875. His most famous composition is La Bella Cubana. His long-neglected violin concerto has been recorded by Rachel Barton on the Cedille label. Lafitte also wrote a string quartet and other small chamber works. He died in Paris on March 12, 1918, at age 82.

Edith Volckaert

Edith Volckaert was a Belgian violinist born on August 27, 1949 (Heifetz was 48 years old.) Someone wrote a biography about her but I do not own it. Since there is precious little information about her on the web, I can only mention that she recorded several albums (works by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bartok, Cesar Franck, and others) before her early death on July 2, 1992 (at age 42) and that she was the fifth prize winner in the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium violin competition in 1971. Volckaert also taught at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels until 1978. Her CDs can be easily found on the internet. She played a 1620 Maggini. That’s about it. On a different topic, I am guessing that great composers have always been pianists. It seems logical since the piano covers such a wide spectrum of notes all at once, obliging the player to think and see vertically, as if visualizing a score. Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev were pianists (or keyboardists.) Sibelius might be the only exception, if one considers him a great composer. There are many second (and third) tier composers who were violinists though: Vitali, Geminiani, Tartini, Molter, Vivaldi, Corelli, Paganini, Spohr, Rode, Viotti, Wieniawski, Enesco, Ernst, De Beriot, Sinding, Vieuxtemps, Bridge, Novacek, Sarasate, Kreisler, Elgar, Ysaye, and more.

Jan Kubelik

Jan Kubelík was a Czech violinist and composer born on July 5, 1880 (Brahms was 47 years old.) His first lessons were with his father, who was an amateur violinist. At age 8, he entered the Prague Conservatory where he studied with Otakar Sevcik. He began concertizing ten years later (1898), the same year he graduated from the Conservatory. Along with Joseph Joachim and Pablo De Sarasate, he was one of the first violinists to be recorded in the early 1900s. Following debuts in Vienna and London in 1900 and 1901, he toured the U.S. for the first time in 1901, starting out in Carnegie Hall on December 2, 1901. At that first U.S. concert, Kubelik was criticized for being a mere showman. However, he enjoyed great financial success everywhere he went. He was a society darling and was already wealthy in his mid-twenties. Carl Sandburg even titled a poem after him. In the latter part of his career, he played the Emperor Stradivarius (1715.) In 1903, Kubelik married Countess Marianne Czáky Szell and eventually became the father of (among others) conductor Rafael Kubelik. As late as 1930, he was still being hailed as the best-known name in the violinist world. Kubelík also wrote music, including six violin concertos which are now never played, and cadenzas for the violin concertos of Brahms, Beethoven, Paganini, and Mozart. A number of his recordings are posted on YouTube. Jan Kubelík died in Prague on December 5, 1940, having never actually retired.

Joseph Achron

Joseph Achron was a Russian (Lithuanian) violinist and composer born on May 13, 1886 (Pablo Sarasate was already 42 years old and Joseph Joachim was 55.) He first studied with his father at age five. He later studied with Leopold Auer at the St Petersburg Conservatory. Achron toured Europe and Russia from 1918 until about 1924. In 1925, he came to the U.S. and taught, played many concerts, and wrote music for films and for the concert stage. His best known work is probably Hebrew Melody, written early in his composing career (1911). Heifetz was one of his benefactors, commissioning a violin concerto in 1938 or 1939. I don’t think Heifetz ever recorded it. Achron was the brother of the pianist and composer Isidor Achron, who became Jascha Heifetz's accompanist. Joseph Achron died in Hollywood, California in 1943.

Pablo Sarasate

Pablo de Sarasate (Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués) was a Spanish violinist and composer born on March 10, 1844 (Mendelssohn was 35 years old). His first studies were with his father at age five. At age eight, he performed in public for the first time. At twelve, he entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Alard (son-in-law of Vuillaume) and others. His Paris debut took place in 1860 and he henceforth concertized around the world. Several works in the standard violin repertoire were either composed or dedicated to him. Many works which he composed for the violin are also in the standard repertoire and will probably hold their place there forever. Practically every article on him affirms that he was an outstanding, virtuoso violinist. In a brief interview, the Hungarian violinist, Tivadar Nachez, relates how Sarasate twice forgot passages in the third Saint Saens concerto (which had been dedicated to him) while playing a concert performance at which Nachez was present. Nachez also stated that Sarasate did not know how to properly play Bach. There are a few recordings of his available (made toward the end of this career.) Sarasate died in September, 1908, at age 64.