Desmond Bradley

Desmond Bradley (William Desmond Bradley) was an Australian violinist, concertmaster, teacher, and composer, born (in Melbourne) on October 12, 1934.  He is known for having enjoyed a very successful career which encompassed many different activities in the field of music – orchestral playing, solo performance, composition, recording studio work, and violin pedagogy.  Although his is not now a household name, he was then widely respected as a serious artist and violinist by his peers.  For someone who composed almost exclusively in his spare time (his violin concerto took him 10 years to complete), he left a considerable number of compositions.  By all accounts, he was a child prodigy.  His violin studies began as a child and his first teacher was probably his father, who was a professional violinist.  (His mother was a concert pianist.)  Evidently, he learned very quickly and began performing publicly at age four.  At age 7, he gave his first recital at the Albert Conservatory of Music in Melbourne.  After that, he appeared as soloist with the Melbourne Symphony playing Charles De Beriot’s concerto number 7 (one of his most popular.).  At age 8, he played the (e minor) Mendelssohn concerto with the same orchestra.  At age 11 (1945), he played the Beethoven concerto, again with the Melbourne Symphony, in a venue northeast of Melbourne, with 11,000 people in attendance.  He won the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Radio Competition at age 12 (1946.)  He then toured Australia, giving close to 100 concerts at just age 15.  Money donated by everyday Australians (what is now known as crowd funding) enabled Bradley to travel to Paris in 1950 to study with George Enescu at a music academy there.  He studied with Enescu for approximately three years.  In 1951, he made his Paris debut.  On December 1, 1953, he made his London debut at Wigmore Hall.  He was 19 years old.  The following year, he soloed with the London Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall.  Periodically, Bradley made solo appearances with orchestra and in recital but eventually settled into a career as concertmaster (between 1960 and 1975, approximately) with various orchestras, including the Tonhalle Orchestra (Switzerland), the Royal Philharmonic, and the New Philharmonia Orchestra (the debut of his violin concerto’s final version was with this orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall on October 4, 1973. Adrian Boult was on the podium.)  Some of his major works (such as the violin concerto with himself as soloist, and the second and third symphonies, which he conducted) have been recorded but I don’t know if they are currently available to the general public.  It is telling that just as his studies with Enescu were crowd-funded, his recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices was self-funded, although the recording was later released by EMI Classics.  Here is an audio file from YouTube wherein he plays the famous Chausson Poeme.  His violin can also be heard in film scores and soundtracks for British recording artists.  Bradley published his book on scale studies titled The Art of the Violin in 1981; however, copies are hard to come by given that it was self-published and only a limited number were printed.  As far as I know, Bradley didn’t play a famous brand violin, such as a Guadagnini, Vuillaume, Amati, Stradivarius, or Guarneri.  Besides the violin concerto and three symphonies, his compositional output included many chamber music works, music for violin and piano, a few transcriptions, and cadenzas for the Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos.  Bradley died on November 6, 1992, at age 58 – the age at which Leonid Kogan and Nicolo Paganini also died.

Julian Kainrath

Julian Kainrath is an Italian violinist born (in Merano, Italy) on May 1, 2005.  (Merano is about 125 miles north of Milan, but it’s so far north that it’s a lot closer to Salzburg, Austria - and Munich, Germany - than it is to Rome. It has a long history, with a mixture of Italian and German culture.)  Kainrath came to international attention after winning the Ysaye International Music Competition in July, 2025.  He was 20 years old.  (Unlike other competitions, the Ysaye competition is held annually.)  He has since embarked on a very active concert career.  His violin studies began at age 6, but I don’t know the name of his first teacher.  At age 8, he began lessons with Dora Schwarzberg, a well-known pedagogue teaching in Vienna, Austria, at the time.  Kainrath had previously won first prize, at age 10, in an Austrian competition for young violinists.  During this period, he was also a member of the Vienna State Opera Children’s Choir.  He has also studied or attended master classes with Kristof Barati, Ilya Gringolts, Boris Kuschnir (teacher of famous Spanish violinist Maria Duenas), and Marc Bouchkov (at the Royal Conservatory in Belgium.)  He made his first orchestral appearance in Bolivia, South America.  (It’s not so unusual since his mother is Bolivian.)  He was 10 years old.  At age 11, he soloed with the National Symphony in Kiev, Ukraine.  He embarked on his first concert tour (as a soloist with orchestra) at age 13, touring northern Italy and Austria.  As many other violinists do, he maintained a concert schedule while studying.  Kainrath has participated in a multitude of music festivals far and wide.  Two very prominent musicians – Alfred Brendel and Sergey Krylov – have praised his artistry.  Kainrath is fluent in German, Spanish, English, and Italian.  (It’s not uncommon for Russian or European concert artists to be fluent in at least three languages.)  He has played a Vuillaume violin constructed in 1828 and a Michel Bergonzi from (about) 1745, although I don’t know which violin he plays at present.  Here is a YouTube video of him playing one of Ysaye’s sonatas for solo violin, the one dedicated to Jaques Thibaud. 

David Kim

David Kim is an American violinist, writer, and pedagogue born (in Carbondale, Illinois) on May 24, 1963.  He is known for being the long-time concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  His tenure began in 1999 (at age 36) and he now ranks among historic concertmasters for longevity, along with Raymond Gniewek (Met Opera), Glenn Dicterow (New York Philharmonic), Norman Carol (Philadelphia Orchestra), Naoum Blinder (San Francisco Symphony), and Richard Burgin (Boston Symphony).  Kim’s playing has often been described as elegant but he is equipped with a superb technique as well.  As all concertmasters do, he has been soloist with his orchestra many times and his solo repertoire is extensive.  In addition to his duties as concertmaster with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he is concertmaster of other orchestras (such as the Aspen and the All-Star Orchestras), although (understandably) on a part time basis.  Kim began lessons at age three, but I don’t know who his first teacher was.  (For unknown reasons, most violinists leave that information out of their biographies.)  He began classes with Dorothy Delay, a well-known teacher in New York at age 8.  Later, when he enrolled at Juilliard as an adult student, his main teachers there were Delay and Felix Galimir.  From that point, he took the career route that hundreds of violin students take.  His goal after graduating from Juilliard (in 1985), as is the goal of many graduates, was to become a touring concert artist – a soloist.  That field is, and has always been, extremely crowded with musicians who are seeking the same kind of spotlight.  Sometimes, Fate smiles on you and you make it into the top tier of soloists, say into the top twenty, and sometimes, it doesn’t.  When that doesn’t happen, you must take an orchestral job which offers financial security.  It is not a bad alternative, especially when it comes to a position as concertmaster of a world class orchestra.  In many ways, it is a far superior alternative - financially, artistically, and personally - to a touring life.  (Emanuel Borok was earning $800,000 as concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony before he retired in 2010.  He could never have made that kind of money as a soloist.)  From an artistic standpoint, concertmasters get to know dozens upon dozens of artists intimately, exchanging stimulating ideas about music (old and new), teaching, careers, instruments, conductors, and contacts among the world’s top artists.  Most concertmasters also enjoy teaching careers, and they get to play as soloists in recital or with orchestras around the world.  For Kim, being appointed concertmaster in Philadelphia came after he had already gained experience playing as concertmaster with other orchestras – those included the Dallas Symphony, the Jupiter (New York) Symphony, and the Norwalk (Connecticut) Symphony.  Kim’s orchestral life actually began at the late age of 31 – most concertmasters begin in their twenties.  (One of the youngest concertmasters in history was Paul Kochanski, who became concertmaster of the Warsaw Philharmonic at age 14.)  It is very rare for a concertmaster to remain with the same orchestra for 25 years or more, but Kim has done it.  Most jump from one concertmaster position to another.   Mischa Mischakoff was concertmaster of ten different orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra – I think he holds the record.  Kim has written a book – The Audition Method for Violin - published in 2022, which guides aspiring orchestral players on the auditioning process.  To say that Kim is a very busy concert artist, adjudicator, teacher, chamber musician, festival director, and recitalist is an understatement.  There is an abundance of information about him on the internet.  Here is a YouTube video of his, playing a slow movement from the Bach a minor Sonata for solo violin.  His strings of choice used to be the Thomastik Dominant brand but now he uses and endorses Larsen Strings.  Among the violins Kim has played are a 1757 J. B. Guadagnini, a Michele Bergonzi from 1754, and a Francesco Gofriller from 1735 – the dates given are approximations.