Andor Toth

Andor Toth was a Hungarian (many would say American) violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher born (in New York City) on June 16, 1925.  He is remembered for a career which encompassed diverse fields in music – Broadway shows, chamber music, orchestral playing, concertizing, and teaching.  He began violin lessons at age 8.  Before long, he ended up going to Juilliard (New York) and joined the NBC Symphony in 1943, under the ill-tempered conductor, Arturo Toscanini, at age 18.  He only stayed a year.  At Juilliard, his teachers were Hans Letz and Ivan Galamian.  Toth played for U.S. troops in Europe during the war, although as a civilian.  Afterward, Toth was associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.  Joseph Gingold was the concertmaster at that time.  Toth then went to Houston to be associate conductor of the Houston Symphony.  From 1955 to 1960, Toth taught at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio, USA.)  He was a Broadway show conductor (New York) for a year after that – 1960-1961.  From 1961 to 1989, he taught at various schools, including the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, California State University, the University of Colorado, New College of Florida, University of Texas, Oberlin (again), San Francisco Conservatory, Stanford University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Houston.  He retired in 1998.  During his teaching career, Toth organized or played in various chamber ensembles, including the Oberlin String Quartet, the Alma Trio, the New Hungarian String Quartet, the Takacs String Quartet, and the Stanford String Quartet.  As a soloist, he appeared with various orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, of which he was concertmaster in 1969.  His students include David Zinman and Charles Barber.  Toth died (in Los Angeles) on November 28, 2006, at age 81. 

Jaap van Zweden

Jaap van Zweden is a Dutch violinist and conductor born on December 12, 1960 (Perlman was 14 years old.) His father was one of his first teachers in Amsterdam. In the U.S., while still a teenager, he studied with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard. In 1979 (at age 19), he was appointed concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the youngest to ever hold that position. He left the Concertgebouw in 1995 and gradually moved toward a conducting career - Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, Theodore Thomas, Alan Gilbert, and David Zinman were also highly accomplished violinists who became conductors. Van Zweden became a full-time conductor in 1997, his post with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra being one of his first (1997-2000.) In 2005, he became the chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and will also lead the Dallas Symphony (from 2008) until 2012. In addition, he will simultaneously lead the Royal Flemish Orchestra (Belgium.) I do not know if he even still plays the violin. However, here is proof that he was indeed a virtuoso violinist at one time. 

David Zinman

David Zinman is an American violinist, conductor, and teacher born on July 9, 1936 (Stravinsky was 54 years old.) However, I do not know if he ever played violin professionally (as Lorin Maazel did.) At age 6 he began studying the violin and later entered the Oberlin Conservatory (Ohio), from which he graduated; afterward he studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota. At Tanglewood (Massachusetts - 1958), he concentrated on conducting and soon received an invitation from Pierre Monteux to become his assistant with the London Symphony (1961-1964.) In 1965 (at age 29), he became assistant conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and remained there for 12 years (1965-1977.) From then on, his career in Europe was established. His American debut was in Philadelphia, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, in 1967. In 1974 (while still assisting in the Netherlands), he was appointed conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic (1974-1985.) Almost simultaneously, he was principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1979-1982.) In 1985, he became conductor of the Baltimore Symphony where he remained for 14 years (1985-1998.) Prior to his last season with the Baltimore Symphony, he was appointed music director of the Tonhalle Orchestra (Zurich, Switzerland - 1995) where he remains up to this day. Zinman has conducted nearly every major orchestra in the world and his discography is very extensive, numbering well over 100. His recording of all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Tonhalle Orchestra was especially well-received. He has also been recognized for several of his recordings through major prizes (Grammys, Gramophone Award, Edison, Grand Prix du Disque, etc.) Zinman teaches at the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia) and is Director (since 1998) of the Aspen Music Festival which takes place over a two-month span every summer. In Zurich, he is known for having begun an innovative late night series of concerts called Tonhalle Late. In Baltimore, he was known for playing a considerable amount of contemporary music and a Saturday morning series of concerts called Casual Concerts. Despite brilliant skills and nearly universal acclaim and adulation, for reasons known only to a select few, David Zinman has never been Principal Conductor of any world-class orchestra – Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin, Concertgebouw, London, Vienna and all the rest.