Stuart Canin (born 1926 in New York City) is an American violinist and conductor. On December 30, 1936, at the age of 10, he performed on the Fred Allen radio hour. [1] Afterwards, Fred Allen remarked "... a little fellow in the 5th grade, and already plays better than Jack Benny." This was the first volley in the famous Benny-Allen feud. [2]
The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 8,398,748 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 19,979,477 people in its 2018 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 22,679,948 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
John Florence Sullivan, known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.
As an American GI, he performed for President Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference. [3] In 1959, he became the first American violinist to win the Paganini Competition. [4]
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid–1920s until 1953 as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1953) and Premier (1941–1953). Initially presiding over a collective leadership as first among equals, by the 1930s he was the country's de facto dictator. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are known as Stalinism.
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, represented respectively by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman.
Canin studied with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School. He taught music at the University of Iowa and Oberlin Conservatory, then served as concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony (where he was appointed by Seiji Ozawa), the San Francisco Opera, and, from 2000-2010, of the Los Angeles Opera. When he retired from the LA Opera, its Artistic Director Plácido Domingo and Music Director James Conlon announced the endowment of a permanent "Stuart Canin Concertmaster Chair" [5]
Ivan Alexander Galamian was an Iranian-born Armenian violin teacher of the twentieth century.
The Juilliard School is a performing arts conservatory located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leading drama, music and dance schools, with some of the most prestigious arts programs.
The University of Iowa is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and the second largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 11 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees.
Canin was a founding member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra and served as its first Music Director, from 1992-1999. [6]
The New Century Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. The goal of the founders was to present classical music in a fresh and unique way in the San Francisco Bay Area. The music director chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision, but the seventeen members of the orchestra perform as part of a conductorless orchestra. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, in the hope of enhancing the level of commitment on the part of the musicians and increasing the precision, passion and power of their playing.
Canin has also done studio work in Hollywood, including a violin-playing and speaking part in the Robert Altman film Short Cuts and violin work in film soundtracks, including Forrest Gump , Jurassic Park , and Schindler's List . He and his time in the army is featured in the documentary short The Rifleman's Violin. [7] He also did studio work as a violinist for Paula Abdul. [1]
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema.
Short Cuts is a 1993 American comedy-drama film, directed by Robert Altman. Filmed from a screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt, it is inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver. The film has a Los Angeles setting, which substitutes the Pacific Northwest backdrop of Carver's stories. Short Cuts traces the actions of 22 principal characters, both in parallel and at occasional loose points of connection. The role of chance and luck is central to the film, and many of the stories concern death and infidelity.
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American adventure comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump (Hanks), a slow-witted but kind-hearted man from Alabama who witnesses and unwittingly influences several defining historical events in the 20th century in the United States. The film differs substantially from the novel.
Canin has two sons, both of whom are medical doctors: Aram Canin and novelist Ethan Canin. [1]
Ethan Andrew Canin is an American author, educator, and physician. He is a member of the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
