Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli violinist, teacher, and conductor born on August 31, 1945 (Heifetz was 43 years old.) He is at the forefront of virtuosos (Zukerman, Kremer, Mullova, Wha Chung, Midori, Laredo, Accardo, Fodor, etc.) who came after the early Twentieth Century era of violinists – Kreisler, Milstein, Gitlis, Heifetz, Elman, Szeryng, Zimbalist, Oistrakh, Kogan, Haendel, Francescatti, Ricci, Ferras, Stern, Grumiaux and others. In addition to a golden tone and an impressive, seemingly effortless technique, he is known for having a good bass voice and a charismatic stage presence. He first took up the violin at age 5 while living in Tel Aviv, Israel. He came to the U.S. in 1958. Winning a scholarship, Perlman attended the Juilliard School of Music (New York) where his teachers were Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. Today, he teaches in their place. His U.S. debut (at Carnegie Hall) took place in 1963 and Perlman has been concertizing, recording, and making television appearances ever since. In addition, as most concert artists of today do, he frequently plays chamber music. His conducting work is mostly done with the Detroit Symphony and the Westchester Philharmonic. Perlman has a profile page on MySpace and YouTube features lots of videos of his playing. A particular favorite of viewers is the Handel Halvorsen Passacaglia (with Pinchas Zukerman on viola.) Perlman plays the Soil Stradivarius of 1714, previously owned by Yehudi Menuhin.

Maxim Vengerov

Maxim Vengerov (Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov) is a Russian violinist, teacher, writer, and conductor born on August 20, 1974 (Itzhak Perlman was 28 years old.) He is known for his phenomenal technique, extroverted playing, high fees, and tango dancing. He began his study of the violin at age 5 (fairly typical for a violinist) in his home town of Novosibirsk. Two years later, he continued his studies at the Special Music School in Moscow. Three years after that, Vengerov began his studies with Zakhar Bron (in Novosibirsk) and continued with him for about the next six years, part of those six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London. By this time, he had won first prize in the Carl Flesch Violin Competition in London (1989 – at age 15). He has been giving master classes, concertizing, and recording ever since. Vengerov has played on three or four different Stradivarius violins, the Kreutzer being one of them (I do not know which one – there are four Stradivarius violins named Kreutzer - from 1701, 1720, 1727, and 1731. See comments below.) Some of his many recordings have won top prizes and high praise from critics. Vengerov took a nine-month sabbatical in 2005, during which he learned jazz improvisation and the electric violin – in the style of Leila Josefowicz, and Nigel Kennedy – and during which he (despite the sabbatical) also played 50 recitals. Sometime during June of 2007, Vengerov stopped playing altogether in order to deal with a shoulder ailment and to concentrate on teaching and conducting (he has been studying conducting since 1998.) Vengerov has been teaching at the Royal Academy (London) since 2005, but at other schools as well – in the style of Daniel Barenboim. There are many Vengerov videos on YouTube and several fan pages on Facebook.

Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman is an Israeli violinist, conductor, and teacher born on July 16, 1948 (Heifetz was 47 years old.) In addition to currently leading the National Arts Centre Orchestra (since April, 1998) and the Zukerman Chamber Players (since 2003), he still concertizes regularly as a soloist. Both of his ensembles are based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While Zukerman is a gifted player with a phenomenal technique and large, impressive sound, he is not a brilliant or even effortlessly virtuosic violinist. One can sense the charisma, but there is very little sparkle or charm in his performances. While still a young boy, Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals helped him come to the U.S. from Israel and Zukerman subsequently studied (from 1962) at Juilliard (New York) with Ivan Galamian, made his New York debut in 1963, and later on won first prizes at various competitions, in the style of many contemporary violinists (and other classical musicians.) In 1980 (at age 32), he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (Minnesota) and stayed for 7 or 8 years. From 1988 to 1998, Zukerman had no orchestra to call his own but guest conducted many different ensembles. He still continues to guest conduct around the world. Zukerman has been married to Eugenia Zukerman (flautist – 1968-1985), Tuesday Weld (actress – 1985-1998), and Amanda Forsyth (cellist - 2004), in that order. His discography is very extensive (over 100 recordings) and YouTube has many videos featuring him. One of his most favored videos is of the Halvorsen violin-viola arrangement of the Handel Passacaglia. On that video, he is joined by violinist Itzhak Perlman. He currently also teaches at the Manhattan School of Music. His usual performing violin is the Dushkin Guarnerius del Gesu (1742.)