Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.
Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin style in St. Petersburg. Accompanying his parents to escape the violence of the Russian Revolution, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."
Henryk Bolesław Szeryng was a Polish-Mexican violinist.
Harold Victor Bauer was an English-born pianist of Jewish heritage who began his musical career as a violinist.
Midori Goto, who performs under the mononym Midori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the Tanglewood Music Festival with Leonard Bernstein conducting his own composition made the front-page headlines in The New York Times. Midori became a celebrated child prodigy, and one of the world's preeminent violinists as an adult.
BaronArthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful tone and flawless intonation". English music critic and broadcaster, Edward Greenfield wrote of him that he was "a master virtuoso who consistently refused to make a show of his technical prowess".
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. He has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Désiré Defauw was a Belgian conductor and violinist.
Benno and Sylvia Rabinof were a violin and piano duo. They extensively toured the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa throughout their career together performing a mix of classical and contemporary pieces.
Chien-Kwan Lin is a classical saxophonist and teacher.
Fredell Lack was an American violinist. Noted as a concert soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, she was the C. W. Moores Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
Dong-Suk Kang is a South Korean violinist.
Nathan "Tossy" Spivakovsky, a Jewish, Russian Empire-born, German-trained violin virtuoso, was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.
Markand Thakar is an American conductor and music director emeritus of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO).
Joan Field was an American violinist.
Robert Davidovici is a Romanian-American violinist. He took First Prize honors in the Naumburg Competition in 1972. In 1983 Davidovici tied, with Maryvonne Le Dizès, for first place in the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. The prize was $77,000 and Davidovici received half.
Elizabeth Carroll Glenn was an American violinist and music educator.
Laura Anne Bossert is a violinist, violist, and pedagogue. She is a current faculty member at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and Wellesley College and, during the summer, the Castleman Quartet Program. She is co-director and founder of LyricaFest in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Charles Treger was an American violinist and teacher. He was the first and only American to win first place in the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań, Poland.
Diane Andersen is a Danish born, Belgian classical concert pianist born in Copenhagen to a French mother and a Danish father.
