Famous Male Violinists
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, was a maestro of the classical era, and profoundly influential in European music. His prodigious talent became apparent when he penned his first composition at the age of five, demonstrating an innate musical genius that was to set him apart. As a child, he toured with his family across Europe, performing for royalty and dazzling audiences with both his performing and composing abilities. Mozart's creative output was unparalleled, numbering more than 800 works including symphonies, operas, chamber music, sonatas, choral pieces, and concertos - many of which are considered pinnacles of these genres. His compositions, such as "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "The Magic Flute", reveal a composer of extraordinary versatility and prolificacy. Despite his short life span, Mozart's impact on classical music is profound and enduring. Regrettably, Mozart grappled with financial difficulties during his lifetime. Struggling to find a stable patron and constantly seeking commissions, he often lived beyond his means. His untimely death on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, was shrouded in mystery, leading to various legends and myths surrounding the circumstances. Yet, there's no denying the fact that Mozart’s legacy lives on, his timeless compositions continue to enchant audiences worldwide, and his influence on successive generations of composers remains unsurpassed.
- Birthplace: Salzburg, Austria
- Profession: Pianist, Musician, Composer, Violist, Violinist
- Credits: The King's Speech, The Shawshank Redemption, Batman Begins, Alien
- Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Art of Fugue, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Western art musical canon.The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, after which he continued his musical development in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar—where he expanded his repertoire for the organ—and Köthen—where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig. He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer, a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign, Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1736. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-part chorales and sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ contrapuntal genres such as fugue. Throughout the 18th century Bach was mostly renowned as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals exclusively devoted to him, and publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including the Air on the G String.
- Birthplace: Eisenach, Germany
- Profession: Musician, Harpsichordist, Composer, Cantor, Organist
- Credits: The Godfather, Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs, The Pianist
- Charlie Daniels, renowned for his fiery fiddle playing and Southern Rock anthems, was an influential American musician, songwriter, and producer. Born Charles Edward Daniels on October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina, he started honing his musical skills at a young age. Inspired by Pentecostal gospel music, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, and country music, Daniels crafted his unique style that would soon captivate audiences worldwide. Daniels kicked off his music career in the late 1950s, writing songs for Elvis Presley and performing as a session musician. However, it was in 1973 when he formed The Charlie Daniels Band that his career truly soared. His band's signature song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," became an iconic hit in 1979, earning them a Grammy award and securing their place in the country music hall of fame. The song showcased Daniels's masterful fiddle playing and his ability to blend the storytelling traditions of country music with the energy of rock, creating a genre-bending classic that remains popular decades later. Throughout his illustrious career, Daniels released over 30 studio albums and scored numerous award nominations and wins. He was an advocate for multiple charitable causes, including veteran support and disaster relief. His contributions to the music industry were recognized with prestigious awards, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. Charlie Daniels passed away on July 6, 2020, leaving behind a legacy as a pioneering figure in Southern Rock music and as a passionate humanitarian.
- Birthplace: Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Guitarist, Musician, Singer-songwriter, Lyricist
- Credits: Sesame Street, Urban Cowboy, The Waterboy, Coyote Ugly
- Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (Italian: [ni(k)koˈlɔ ppaɡaˈniːni] (listen); 27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.
- Birthplace: Genoa, Italy
- Profession: Guitarist, Virtuoso, Violinist
- Credits: Kinski Paganini, The Level Crossing-keeper
- Franz Joseph Haydn (; German: [ˈfʁants ˈjoːzɛf ˈhaɪdn̩] (listen); 31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael Haydn.
- Birthplace: Rohrau, Austria
- Profession: Composer, Violist, Violinist
- Credits: Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, Sherlock Holmes, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
- A prodigious musical talent, Owen Pallett started studying classical violin at just three years of age. He composed his first piece at 13, and wrote music for videogames, short films and operas before graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in Music Composition. His first recorded output was a collaboration with Jim Guthrie on Morning Noon Night (2002) and as part of Toronto trio Les Mouches who released three albums from 2002 to 2004. He first provided string arrangements for Montreal's Arcade Fire on their breakthrough album Funeral (2004). Inspired by his love of computer games, Pallett took on the moniker Final Fantasy in tribute to a popular role-playing game; his debut release Has a Good Home (2005) featured melodies inspired by videogames. This multilayered solo project mixed his classical training with lo-fi indie, folk, electronica and pop elements. "Adventure.exe" was used in a UK commercial but Pallett donated all his earnings from inadvertently licensing the track to Doctors Without Borders. His second album, He Poos Clouds (2006), continued the videogame theme. When it won Canada's prestigious Polaris Award, the ever modest Pallett donated the prize money to a selection of his favorite bands who needed financial help. He continued to collaborate with Arcade Fire, featuring on their second album Neon Bible (2007), as well as working with Beirut, The Last Shadow Puppets, Pet Shop Boys, Mika, and many more. For his firstr soundtrack work, he teamed up with Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne to compose the music for Richard Kelly's offbeat horror "The Box" (2010). With the release of 2010's Heartland, Pallett reverted to his own name for his solo releases. By now Pallett was working regularly with some of the biggest names in the industry including Duran Duran, The National, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Linkin Park, and Taylor Swift. Returning to soundtracks, Pallett was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with Will Butler (Win's brother and also a member of Arcade Fire) on Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013).
- Birthplace: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Profession: Arranger, Musician, Singer-songwriter, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: The Box, The Wait, Life
- Itzhak Perlman (Hebrew: יצחק פרלמן; born 31 August 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. Over the course of his career, Perlman has performed worldwide, and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a State Dinner at the White House honoring Queen Elizabeth II, and at the Presidential Inauguration of President Obama, and he has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Palestine
- Profession: Conductor, Actor, Violinist, Teacher
- Credits: Fantasia 2000, Small Wonders, Beethoven: Triple Concerto & Choral Fantasy, Live from Lincoln Center, Classic Archive: Itzhak Perlman
- Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more in Britain than elsewhere. Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
- Birthplace: Broadheath, United Kingdom
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Organist, Solicitor, Violinist
- Giovanni Battista Draghi (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni batˈtista ˈdraːɡi]; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), often referred to as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Italian: [perɡoˈleːzi; -eːsi]), was an Italian composer, violinist and organist. His best-known works include his Stabat Mater and the opera La serva padrona (The Maid Turned Mistress). His compositions include operas and sacred music. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.
- Birthplace: Iesi, Italy
- Profession: Composer, Organist, Violinist
- Credits: Woyzeck
- Ottorino Respighi ( reh-SPEE-ghee, also US: rə-, Italian: [ottoˈriːno reˈspiːɡi]; 9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian violinist, composer and musicologist, best known for his trilogy of orchestral tone poems: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928). His musicological interest in 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century music led him to compose pieces based on the music of these periods. He also wrote several operas, the most famous being La fiamma.
- Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
- Profession: Conductor, Pianist, Music pedagogue, Composer, Musicologist
- Credits: Fireworks, Kostan Zarian: The Lonely Soul of Armenian Literature
- Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian Baroque composer. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos. He is also remembered today for a work called "Adagio in G minor", supposedly written by him, but probably written by Remo Giazotto, a modern musicologist and composer, who was a cataloger of the works of Albinoni.
- Birthplace: Venice, Scorzè, Italy
- Profession: Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Mother and Son, Ballet Adagio, Sentenced to Death
- Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (Russian: Максим Александрович Венгеров, pronounced [mɐkˈsʲim ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ vʲɪnˈɡʲɛrəf]) (born 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk) is a Russian-born Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor.
- Birthplace: Novosibirsk, Russia
- Profession: Conductor, Violist, Violinist, Teacher
- Credits: Holocaust: A Music Memorial Film
- Carl August Nielsen (Danish: [kʰal ˈnelsn̩]; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age. He initially played in a military band before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen from 1884 until December 1886. He premiered his Op. 1, Suite for Strings, in 1888, at the age of 23. The following year, Nielsen began a 16-year stint as a second violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra under the conductor Johan Svendsen, during which he played in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff and Otello at their Danish premieres. In 1916, he took a post teaching at the Royal Danish Academy and continued to work there until his death. Although his symphonies, concertos and choral music are now internationally acclaimed, Nielsen's career and personal life were marked by many difficulties, often reflected in his music. The works he composed between 1897 and 1904 are sometimes ascribed to his "psychological" period, resulting mainly from a turbulent marriage with the sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen. Nielsen is especially noted for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet. In Denmark, his opera Maskarade and many of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage. His early music was inspired by composers such as Brahms and Grieg, but he soon developed his own style, first experimenting with progressive tonality and later diverging even more radically from the standards of composition still common at the time. Nielsen's sixth and final symphony, Sinfonia semplice, was written in 1924–25. He died from a heart attack six years later, and is buried in Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen. Nielsen maintained the reputation of a musical outsider during his lifetime, both in his own country and internationally. It was only later that his works firmly entered the international repertoire, accelerating in popularity from the 1960s through Leonard Bernstein and others. In Denmark, Nielsen's reputation was sealed in 2006 when three of his compositions were listed by the Ministry of Culture amongst the twelve greatest pieces of Danish music. For many years, he appeared on the Danish hundred-kroner banknote. The Carl Nielsen Museum in Odense documents his life and that of his wife. Between 1994 and 2009 the Royal Danish Library, sponsored by the Danish government, completed the Carl Nielsen Edition, freely available online, containing background information and sheet music for all of Nielsen's works, many of which had not been previously published.
- Birthplace: Sortelung, Denmark
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist
- Leopold Godowsky Jr. (May 27, 1900 – February 18, 1983) was an American violinist and chemist, who together with Leopold Mannes created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome.
- Profession: Chemist, Inventor, Violinist
- Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, (22 April 1916 – 12 March 1999) was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
- Profession: Conductor, Writer, Violist, Violinist, Teacher
- Former concert pianist who contributed the score to Thomas Ince's "Civilization" (1916), among other silents, and made his directorial debut in 1917. Schertzinger cranked out numerous silent and sound films (confecting scores for many of them), and is best known for directing two of the Hope-Crosby-Lamour "Road" films.
- Birthplace: Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, USA
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Songwriter, Screenwriter, Composer
- Credits: One Night of Love, Paramount on Parade, Redskin, Hell's Hinges, Something to Sing About
- A remarkably prolific composer, Victor Young wrote songs and underscoring that appeared in hundreds of films which earned him 22 Academy Award nominations during his relatively short career. Although Young died after only twenty years in the business, romance standards like "When I Fall in Love," "Stella By Starlight" and "Love Letters" kept him alive in film credits long past 1956.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Arranger, Actor, Composer
- Credits: Shane, The Quiet Man, The Greatest Show on Earth, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Uninvited
- Jascha Heifetz (; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist. Many consider him to be the greatest violinist of all time. Born in Vilna (Vilnius), he moved as a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood—Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said on hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."He had a long and successful performing career; however, after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he switched his focus to teaching.Late in life, Heifetz became a dedicated teacher and a champion of socio-political causes. He publicly advocated to establish 911 as an emergency phone number, and crusaded for clean air. He and his students at the University of Southern California protested smog by wearing gas masks, and in 1967 he converted his Renault passenger car into an electric vehicle.
- Birthplace: Vilnius, Lithuania
- Profession: Actor, Violinist, Teacher
- Credits: They Shall Have Music, Carnegie Hall, Artur Rubinstein, Bell System Family Theatre
- Isaac Stern (21 July 1920 – 22 September 2001) was an American violinist.
- Birthplace: Kremenets, Ukraine
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Credits: From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, Small Wonders, Mendy: A Question of Faith
- Josef Suk (4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer and violinist. He studied under Antonín Dvořák, whose daughter he married.
- Birthplace: Křečovice, Czech Republic
- Profession: Composer, Violinist
- Pinchas Zukerman (Hebrew: פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
- Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Profession: Conductor, Music Director, Violist, Violinist
- Pandit Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (born 23 July 1947) is an acclaimed Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.
- Birthplace: Chennai, India
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Record producer, Composer, Multi-instrumentalist
- Credits: Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, ...Jayate, Banaz a Love Story, Ee Snehatheerathu
- René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti (August 9, 1902 - September 17, 1991) was a French virtuoso violinist. Zino Francescatti was born in Marseilles, to a musical family. Both parents were violinists. His father, who also played the cello, had studied with Camillo Sivori. Zino studied violin from age three and was quickly recognized as a child prodigy. He began performing at the age of five and made his debut at age 10, playing Beethoven's Violin Concerto.In 1927 he went to Paris to teach at the École Normale de Musique; he also conducted the Concerts Poulets. He made his first world tour in 1931 and his American debut with Sir John Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic in 1939, playing Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1. His recording of the concerto is still regarded as one of the best. For three decades after 1945 he had an exceptionally impressive international career. A violinist of outstanding technical ability, Francescatti played all of the great concerti. His performances of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, and others, continue to be fondly remembered and highly regarded. Francescatti made many renowned LPs, including a set of the complete Beethoven violin-piano sonatas with Robert Casadesus, a frequent musical collaborator of his. Both in concerts and on disc, he performed on the celebrated "Hart" Stradivarius of 1727. Upon his retirement in 1976, he sold the instrument and established the Zino Francescatti Foundation, to assist young violinists, in La Ciotat. In 1987 an international violin competition was organized in his honor in Aix-en-Provence.He died in La Ciotat, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, aged 89.
- Birthplace: Marseille, France
- Profession: Violinist
- Jacques Thibaud (French pronunciation: [ʒak tibo]; 27 September 1880 – 1 September 1953) was a French violinist.
- Birthplace: Bordeaux, France
- Profession: Violinist
- David Christian Bongartz (born 4 September 1980), better known by his stage name David Garrett, is a German pop and crossover violinist and recording artist.
- Birthplace: Aachen, Germany
- Profession: Violinist
- Efrem Zimbalist Sr. (April 21, 1889 – February 22, 1985) was a concert violinist, composer, teacher, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.
- Birthplace: Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Profession: Conductor, Musician, Composer, Violinist, Teacher
- Rudolf Koelman is a Dutch violinist born in Amsterdam in 1959 and is professor for violin at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) in Switzerland.
- Birthplace: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Profession: Violinist
- David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (30 September [O.S. 17 September] 1908 – 24 October 1974), was a Soviet classical violinist and violist. Oistrakh collaborated with major orchestras and musicians from many parts of the world, and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works, including both of Dmitri Shostakovich's violin concerti, and the violin concerto by Aram Khachaturian. He is considered one of the preeminent violinists of the 20th century.
- Birthplace: Ukraine, Odessa
- Profession: Conductor, Music pedagogue, Violist, Violinist
- Alberto Lysy (February 11, 1935 – December 30, 2009) was a prestigious Argentine violinist and conductor The violin gifted to him was a very old Stradivarius. Among his friends were Charlie Chaplin and family whose Swiss home M. Lysy visited for extended stays.
- Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Mehli Mehta (25 September 1908 – 19 October 2002) was an Indian conductor and violinist.
- Birthplace: Mumbai, India
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and has more recently performed in jazz, klezmer and other music genres.
- Birthplace: Brighton, England
- Profession: Musician, Violist, Violinist
- Credits: The Who & Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, Spirits of Music, Spirits of Music: Part II, Nigel Kennedy: Live at Carcassonne
- Gil Shaham (Hebrew: גיל שחם; born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Israeli Jewish descent.
- Birthplace: USA, Urbana, Illinois
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: Europa Konzert from Palermo, Dan Ettinger Meets Gil Shaham with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
- Manuel López-Quiroga Miquel (January 30, 1899 – December 13, 1988), better known as Maestro Quiroga, was a Spanish composer especially known for his coplas, cuplés, and zarzuelas. He was also a pianist and one of the group of songwriters, Quintero, León and Quiroga, who created some of Spain's most popular and best-known songs from the mid-twentieth century.
- Birthplace: Seville, Spain
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Pianist, Author, Composer
- Credits: Rumbo
- Tough-talking actor Simon Oakland started out as a concert violinist before moving into acting on stage in the late 1940s. In the late 1950s, Oakland made some appearances on television before getting the pivotal role of Edward Montgomery, a newspaper reporter trying to get the full story in Susan Hayward's campy yet harrowing Oscar-winner "I Want to Live!." After that, in 1960, Oakland earned immortality as a glib doctor trying to offer a pat explanation for the behavior of the killer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho." He appeared in the Oscar-winning musical "West Side Story" in 1961, and then mainly appeared on television shows such as the mind-bending anthology series "Twilight Zone" and the Prohibition-era crime drama "The Untouchables" in the mid-'60s. Oakland played a doctor again on the big screen in Vincente Minnelli's musical "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" in 1970, and then finished out his career on television.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Profession: Musician, Actor, Violinist
- Credits: Psycho, West Side Story, Bullitt, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Sand Pebbles
- Gidon Kremer (Latvian: Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
- Birthplace: Latvia, Riga
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Credits: Gidon Kremer & Alban Berg: Violin Concerto, David Oistrakh: Artist of the People?, Gidon Kremer: Back to Bach, Kremer Plays Mozart, Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica Play Schubert
- Mohan Sithara is a Malayalam film music composer. He received the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Music Director (2009) for the songs in Priyanandan's Sufi Paranja Kadha. Since 1986 he has been an active musician in the Malayalam film industry. His work mixes Western, Classical and folk styles. He has worked with famous lyricists and poets like O. N. V Kurup, Yusufali Kechery, Sreekumaran Thampi, Rajeev Alunkal, P K Gopi, Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Rafeeq Ahmed, S. Ramesan Nair, B R Prasad, Vinayan, Bharanikkavu Sivakumar, Anil Panachooran, Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma, Gireesh Puthenchery, and Bichu Thirumala. Many prominent singers have sung his songs, including K. J. Yesudas, P. Jayachandran, M.G.Sreekumar,K. S. Chithra, Sujatha Mohan, Madhu Balakrishnan, G. Venugopal, Vidhu Prathap, Afsal, Manjari, Jyotsna Radhakrishnan, Swarnalatha, Sheelamani, Biju Narayanan, Priya R Pai,Anvar Saduth and Poornasree.
- Birthplace: Peruvallur
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Music Director, Violinist
- Credits: Thanmathra, Bhramaram, Rappakal, Chanakyan, Innale
- Sean Mackin (born April 30, 1979) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the violinist and backing vocalist for the American pop punk music group Yellowcard.
- Birthplace: Jacksonville, USA, Florida
- Profession: Musician, Violinist
- Credits: How to Make Love to a Woman
- Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American Grammy award-winning violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius.
- Birthplace: Bloomington, USA, Indiana
- Profession: Musician, Violinist
- Credits: Verbier Festival: Highlights 2008, Martha Argerich: Live at Verbier Festival: 2007-2008, Orchestra of Exiles
- Gilles Apap (born 21 May 1963) is a French classical violinist. Born in Béjaïa, Algeria, he was raised in Nice, France. In 1985 he won first prize in the contemporary music category at the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. He served as concertmaster with the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra for 10 years, but has since focused on his career as a soloist with orchestras around the world. A virtuosic violinist, Gilles is also known for his interpretations of traditional music from Eastern Europe to America, such as gypsy, Irish, swing or bluegrass. He recorded three CDs in the 1990s with Sony Classical Records, then formed his own company, Apapaziz Productions. Since 1999, Apapaziz has recorded eight Gilles Apap CDs.
- Birthplace: Algeria
- Profession: Musician, Fiddler, Violinist
- Nathan Mironovich Milstein (January 13, 1904 [O.S. December 31, 1903] – December 21, 1992) was a Ukrainian-born American virtuoso violinist. Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period. He was also known for his long career: he performed at a high level into his mid 80s, retiring only after suffering a broken hand.
- Birthplace: Ukraine, Odessa
- Profession: Author, Violinist
- Diodato "Uto" Ughi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian: [ˈuːto ˈuːɡi]; born 21 January 1944 in Busto Arsizio, Italy), is an Italian violinist and conductor. He was the music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia between 1987–1992. He is considered one of Italy's greatest living violinists and is also active in the promotion of classical music in today's culture.When he was young he started to play the violin, at only «5 or 6 years» he said, and he made his debut at 7 years old, at the Teatro Lirico di Milano. At 12 years he was considered a mature artist.He involves himself in many activities to promote music culture. He is the founder of several music festivals, namely "Omaggio a Venezia", "Omaggio a Roma" (1999–2002) and "Uto Ughi per Roma." In tandem with Bruno Tosi, Uto Ughi instituted the musical prize "Una vita per la Musica" ("A life for Music"). On September 4, 1997 he was commissioned Cavaliere della Gran Croce by the Italian President and in 2002 he received a degree honoris causa in Communication studies. He has won various awards, the most prestigious "Una vita per la musica - Leonard Bernstein" (23/6/1997), "Galileo 2000" prize (5/7/2003) and the international prize "Ostia Mare" (8/8/2003). Ughi has possessed the following fine instruments: the Van Houten-Kreutzer (1701) and Sinsheimer-General Kyd-Perlman (1714) by Antonio Stradivari; and the Kortschak-Wurlitzer (1739), Ole Bull (1744) and Cariplo-Hennel-Rosé (1744) by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. He received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2015.
- Birthplace: Busto Arsizio, Italy
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist
- Samvel Yervinyan (Armenian: Սամվել Երվինյան, born January 25, 1966) is an Armenian violinist and composer.
- Birthplace: Yerevan, Armenia
- Profession: Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Shlomo Mintz (Hebrew: שלמה מינץ) (born 30 October 1957) is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violist and conductor. He regularly appears with orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world.
- Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
- Profession: Violist, Violinist
- Ludwig Minkus (Russian: Людвиг Минкус), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826 – 7 December 1917), was a Jewish-Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher. Minkus is noted for the music he composed while serving as the official Composer of Ballet Music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in Russia. During his long career, he wrote for the original works and numerous revivals staged by the renowned Ballet Masters Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa. Among the composer's most celebrated compositions was his score for La source (1866; composed jointly with Léo Delibes), Don Quixote (1869); and La Bayadère (1877). Minkus also wrote supplemental material for insertion into already existing ballets. The most famous and enduring of these pieces is the Grand Pas classique from the ballet Paquita, which was added by Marius Petipa especially for a revival of the ballet staged for the benefit performance of the prima ballerina Ekaterina Vazem in 1881. For this revival Minkus also composed the Mazurka des enfants (Children's Mazurka) and an expanded edition of the ballet's Pas de trois, which would go on to become known as the Minkus pas de trois. Today, Minkus's music is some of the most performed in all of ballet, and is a most integral part of the traditional classical ballet repertory.
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Profession: Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Jubilee, Don Quixote, Demonstration
- Lakshminarayana Shankar (born 26 April 1950), also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian violinist, singer, and composer. In the 1970s he formed the band Shakti with British guitarist John McLaughlin. His style combines jazz and Indian classical music, though he also worked in pop and rock, as with Peter Gabriel. Shenkar (aka Shankar, L.Shankar) is widely considered a living legend, a pioneer and a musical genius by his peers who hold him in the highest esteem. Shenkar has enthralled audiences and critics alike all over the world. A child prodigy who is a virtuoso violinist, vocalist (with 5 1/2 octaves range), composer and record producer who has sold over 50 million albums through his solo projects and collaborations with other artists throughout the world.Shenkar was born in Madras, India and grew up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka where his father V. Lakshminarayana Iyer was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music. He was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age.He started studying the vocal at the age of two then violin at five then mrdangam at seven. His father was an esteemed violinist, vocalist, his mother L Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. At the age of seven, Shenkar gave his first public concert,at a Ceylonese temple, Nallur Kandaswarmy. He gained considerable reputation performing and recording with some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music, playing all through India, such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer, Alathur Srinivasa Iyer and many other leading musicians besides his own solo concerts which he performed with the great Palghat Mani Iyer all over India and USA.
- Birthplace: Chennai, India
- Profession: Conductor, Arranger, Record producer, Musician, Music pedagogue
- Joseph Szigeti (Hungarian: Szigeti József, [ˈjoːʒɛf ˈsiɡɛti]; 5 September 1892 – 19 February 1973) was a Hungarian violinist. Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay. After completing his studies with Hubay in his early teens, Szigeti began his international concert career. His performances at that time were primarily limited to salon-style recitals and the more overtly virtuosic repertoire; however, after making the acquaintance of pianist Ferruccio Busoni, he began to develop a much more thoughtful and intellectual approach to music that eventually earned him the nickname "The Scholarly Virtuoso". Following a bout of tuberculosis that required a stay in a sanatorium in Switzerland, Szigeti settled in Geneva, where he became Professor of Violin at the local conservatory in 1917. It was in Geneva that he met his future wife, Wanda Ostrowska, and at roughly the same time he became friends with the composer Béla Bartók. Both relationships were to be lifelong. From the 1920s until 1960, Szigeti performed regularly around the world and recorded extensively. He also distinguished himself as a strong advocate of new music, and was the dedicatee of many new works by contemporary composers. Among the more notable pieces written for him are Ernest Bloch's Violin Concerto, Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, and Eugène Ysaÿe's Solo Sonata No. 1. After retiring from the concert stage in 1960, he worked at teaching and writing until his death in 1973, at the age of 80.
- Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: The Art of Joseph Szigeti
- Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman (17 September 1930 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin-trinity of Carnatic Music. His disciples included his two children Lalgudi G. J. R. Krishnan, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, his sister Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam, renowned musician S P Ramh (grandson of Shri. G.N. Dandapani Iyer), renowned Harikatha exponent Vishaka Hari, Saketharaman, Vittal Ramamurthy, Dr. N. Shashidhar, Film Music Composer Girishh G, Padma Shankar, Kanchan Chandran, Raghuram Hosahalli, Srinivasamurthy, Pakkala Ramdas, Sankari Krishnan, Yamini Ramesh, Mumbai Shilpa, Shreya Devnath, Krithika Natarajan, Salem Sisters, Arushi Ramesh, the leading Vainika Srikanth Chary and the Academy Award-nominated Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.
- Birthplace: Chennai, India
- Profession: Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Sringaram
- Salvatore Accardo (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtoːre akˈkardo]; Knight Grand Cross born 26 September 1941 in Turin, northern Italy) is an Italian violinist and conductor, who is known for his interpretations of the works of Niccolò Paganini. Accardo studied violin in the southern Italian city of Naples in the 1950s. He gave his first professional recital at the age of 13 performing Paganini's Capricci. In 1958 Accardo became the first prize winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa. He has recorded Paganini's 24 Caprices (re-recorded in 1999) for solo violin and was the first violinist to record all six of the violin concerti by Paganini. He has an extensive discography of almost 50 recordings on Philips, DG, EMI, Sony Classical, Foné, Dynamic, and Warner-Fonit. Notably, he has recorded an album of classical and contemporary works in 1995 on Paganini's Guarneri del Gesù 1742 violin, Il Cannone. Accardo founded the Accardo Quartet in 1992 and he was one of the founders of the Walter Stauffer Academy in 1986. He founded the Settimane Musicali Internazionali in Naples and the Cremona String Festival in 1971, and in 1996, he re-founded the Orchestra da Camera Italiana (O.C.I.), whose members are the best pupils of the Walter Stauffer Academy. The most famous pupils are Alessio Bidoli and Anastasiya Petryshak. He performed the music of Paganini for the soundtrack of the 1989 film Kinski Paganini. In the 1970s he was a leader of the celebrated Italian chamber orchestra "I Musici" (1972-1977). After he was a student in Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, he taught there from 1973 to 1980. In 2004, he came back to Siena, and now he teaches in Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Accardo owns one Stradivarius violin, the "Hart ex Francescatti" (1727) and had the "Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry" (1718).
- Birthplace: Turin, Italy
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Credits: Kinski Paganini
- Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (Italian pronunciation: [anˈnuntsjo ˈpaːolo mantoˈvaːni]) (15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980), known mononymously as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before the Beatles...the first act to sell over one million stereo albums and [have] six albums simultaneously in the US Top 30 in 1959".
- Birthplace: Venice, Scorzè, Italy
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Bandleader, Actor, Composer
- Henryk Szeryng (usually pronounced HEN-rik SHEH-ring) (22 September 1918 – 3 March 1988) was a Polish-Mexican violinist.
- Birthplace: Żelazowa Wola, Poland
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: The Art of Henryk Szeryng
Viktor Tretiakov
Age: 78Viktor Viktorovich Tretiakov is a Russian violinist and conductor. Other spellings of his name are Victor, Tretyakov and Tretjakov.- Birthplace: Krasnoyarsk, Russia
- Profession: Violinist
- Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 15 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music. He is primarily known for his unique style of violin playing, accompanied by loop and effect pedals, whistling, and voice. In the '90s, he appeared in several jazz ensembles, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six, before starting Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which released three albums between 1998 and 2001. Weather Systems (2003) was his first solo album upon leaving the Bowl of Fire to feature his use of loop-pedal, and to have a stronger emphasis on folk and indie music. Beyond his own record releases, he has collaborated with various artists, including The Handsome Family, Dosh, and Nora O'Connor. He appeared as "Dr. Stringz" in a 2007 episode of Jack's Big Music Show, wrote and performed "The Whistling Caruso" for The Muppets movie in 2011, and composed the score for the television series Baskets, released in 2016. He has also appeared on a TED Talk in 2010 performing his music.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Profession: Songwriter, Musician, Singer, Multi-instrumentalist, Violinist
- Credits: The Unidentified, Norman
- Aaron Rosand (born Aaron Rosen; March 15, 1927 – July 9, 2019) was an American violinist.
- Birthplace: Hammond, Indiana
- Profession: Violinist
- Frank Peter Zimmermann (born 27 February 1965) is a German violinist.
- Birthplace: Duisburg, Germany
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: Bach: Sonatas for Violin and Piano: BWV 1014-1019
- Christian Ferras (17 June 1933 – 14 September 1982) was a French violinist.
- Birthplace: Le Touquet, France
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Alexander Markov is a Russian American violinist who has received awards from the Paganini International Violin Competition (gold medal) and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. He is known for his recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, particularly for his interpretation of the left-hand pizzicato section of the 24th Caprice. A film of Markov playing the Caprices was directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. Markov was born in Moscow and studied violin with his father, concert violinist Albert Markov. By the time he was eight years old, he was appearing as a soloist with orchestras and performing double concertos with his father. Markov emigrated to the U.S. with his parents and received his United States citizenship in 1982. He made his New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall and appeared with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. Markov has recorded for the Erato label, distributed worldwide by Warner Classics. His releases have included the Tchaikovsky pieces for violin and piano. He has performed with Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Neeme Järvi, Zdeněk Mácal, Lorin Maazel, and Gerard Schwarz. He has performed with the orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and Houston, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Jerusalem orchestras. He played to great acclaim at the Llandeilo Music festival in west Wales in July 2012. Yehudi Menuhin has written "He is without doubt one of the most brilliant and musical of violinists…Alexander Markov will certainly leave his mark on the music-lovers of the world and in the annals of the violin virtuosi of our day".
- Birthplace: Russia, Moscow
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: Alexander Markov: Paganini: 24 Caprices
- Ivry Gitlis (Hebrew: עברי גיטליס; born 25 August 1922 in Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli virtuoso violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has performed with the world's top orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and many more.
- Birthplace: Haifa, Israel
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Sansa, Mireille and the Others
- Tan Dun (simplified Chinese: 谭盾; traditional Chinese: 譚盾; pinyin: Tán Dùn, Mandarin pronunciation: [tʰǎn tu̯ə̂n]; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary classical composer and conductor, most widely known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, as well as composing music for the medal ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His works often incorporate audiovisual elements; use instruments constructed from organic materials, such as paper, water, and stone; and are often inspired by traditional Chinese theatrical and ritual performance. In 2013, he was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has won numerous awards for his works, including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA award.
- Birthplace: Changsha, China
- Profession: Conductor, Arranger, Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, Fallen, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior
- Baron Arthur Grumiaux (French: [gʁy'mjo]; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist.
- Birthplace: Les Bons Villers, Belgium
- Profession: Pianist, Violinist
Selim Giray
Age: 54Selim Giray (born 6 June 1970, Istanbul) is a Turkish-born American violinist, researcher, clinician and conductor.- Birthplace: Istanbul, Turkey
- Profession: Conductor, Researcher, Violinist
- Michael Rabin (May 2, 1936 – January 19, 1972) was an American violinist. He has been described as "one of the most talented and tragic violin virtuosi of his generation". His complete Paganini "24 Caprices" for solo violin are available as a single CD, and an additional 6-CD set contains most of his concerto recordings. Despite his brief career—he died at 35—they remain seminal interpretations.Michael Rabin was of Romanian-Jewish descent. His mother Jeanne was a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his father George was a violinist in the New York Philharmonic. He began to study the violin at the age of seven. His parents encouraged his musical development. After a lesson with Jascha Heifetz, the master advised him to study with Ivan Galamian, who said he had "no weaknesses, never." He began studies with Galamian in New York and at the Meadowmount School of Music and the Juilliard School. His Carnegie Hall debut took place in January 1950, at the age of 13, as soloist with the National Orchestral Association, playing Vieuxtemps' Concerto No. 5 under the direction of Léon Barzin. Subsequently, he appeared with a number of American orchestras before his Carnegie Hall debut on 29 November 1951, at the age of 15, in the Paganini D major Concerto, with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic. His 1958 recording of this concerto is considered by many to be the most impressive recording of this work, and the recording itself is notable for the fullness of tone. His first London appearance took place on 13 December 1954, at age 18, playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto in D at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Rabin recorded concertos by Mendelssohn, Glazunov, Paganini (No. 1 in D major; 2 recordings), Wieniawski (No. 1 in F-sharp minor, No. 2 in D minor) and Tchaikovsky, as well as Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and the Paganini Caprices for solo violin. He recorded the Bach Sonata No. 3 in C major for solo violin, and the Third and Fourth sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, as well as other virtuoso pieces, including an album with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Rabin played in a bel canto style. For many years, he played the "Kubelik" Guarnerius del Gesù of 1735. He toured widely, playing in all major cities in the U.S., Europe, South America, Southern Africa, and Australia. He even appeared on a 1951 episode of the variety television series "Texaco Star Theatre." During a recital in Carnegie Hall, he suddenly lost his balance and fell forward. This was an early sign of a neurological condition which was to limit his career from then on. His death, at 35, resulted from a fall in his apartment in New York City.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Profession: Violinist
- Vadim Viktorovich Repin (Russian: Вади́м Ви́кторович Ре́пин; [vɐˈdʲim ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈrʲepʲɪn]; born 31 August 1971) is a Russian and Belgian violinist who lives in Vienna.After hearing one of Repin's performances, violinist Yehudi Menuhin said: "Vadim Repin is simply the best and most perfect violinist that I have ever had the chance to hear."
- Birthplace: Novosibirsk, Russia
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: In Search of Beethoven, A Night of Encores
- Bijan Mortazavi (Persian: بیژن مرتضوی), (born November 16, 1957 in Babol, Iran), is an Iranian Virtuoso Violinist, Musician, Composer, Songwriter, Arranger and Singer.
- Birthplace: Juybar, Iran
- Profession: Singer, Violinist
- Boyd Calvin Tinsley (born May 16, 1964) is an American violinist and mandolinist who is best known for having been a member of the Dave Matthews Band. Within the band, Tinsley has collaborated in writing songs, harmonizing, and singing backing vocals.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Charlottesville
- Profession: Mandolinist, Musician, Fiddler, Actor, Composer
- Credits: Dave Matthews Band: Live at Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado, Faces In The Mirror
Ruggiero Ricci
Dec. at 94 (1918-2012)Ruggiero Ricci (24 July 1918 – 6 August 2012) was an American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini.- Birthplace: San Bruno, California
- Profession: Violinist
- Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 1824 – 10 March 1910) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the Middle Romantic Era.
- Birthplace: Altona, Hamburg, Germany
- Profession: Conductor, Pianist, Music pedagogue, Composer, Violinist
- Aleksey Mikhailovich Igudesman (Russian: Алексей Михайлович Игу́десман; born 22 February 1973) is a Russian-German violinist, composer, conductor, comedian and actor. He performs in the comedy-musical duo Igudesman & Joo.
- Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Profession: Conductor, Comedian, Actor, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: The Festival
- Leonidas Kavakos (Greek: Λεωνίδας Καβάκος; born 30 October 1967) is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, and Indianapolis competitions. 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.
- Birthplace: Athens, Greece
- Profession: Violinist
- Bronisław Huberman (19 December 1882 – 16 June 1947) was a Jewish Polish violinist. He was known for his individualistic and personal interpretations and was praised for his tone color, expressiveness, and flexibility. The Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius violin which bears his name was stolen and recovered twice during the period in which he owned the instrument. Huberman is also remembered for founding the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then known as the Palestine Philharmonic) and thus providing refuge from the Third Reich for nearly 1,000 European Jews.
- Birthplace: Częstochowa, Poland
- Profession: Violinist, Teacher
- Ole Olsen (4 July 1850 – 4 November 1927) was a Norwegian organist, composer, conductor and military musician.
- Birthplace: Hammerfest, Norway
- Profession: Conductor, Pianist, Composer, Organist, Violinist
Mischa Elman
Dec. at 76 (1891-1967)Mischa (Mikhail Saulovich) Elman (Russian: Михаил Саулович Эльман; January 20, 1891 – April 5, 1967) was a Ukrainian-born Jewish-American violinist, famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality.- Birthplace: Ukraine
- Profession: Violinist
- Lorin Varencove Maazel (March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in the concert halls of Europe by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. However, he would later be appointed music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age.
- Birthplace: Nanterre, France, Neuilly-sur-Seine
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Music Director, Violinist
- Credits: La traviata, Madama Butterfly: Puccini: Teatro Alla Scala, Verdi: Requiem Mass, L'Enfant et Les Sortileges, Great Arias with Placido Domingo and Friends
- Thomas Augustine Arne (; 12 March 1710 – 5 March 1778) was an English composer. He is best known for his patriotic song Rule Britannia, which has become a second national anthem to God Save the Queen, and the song A-Hunting We Will Go. Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at Drury Lane and Covent Garden.
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Profession: Composer, Keyboard player, Violinist
- Credits: Treasure Island
- Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western and Eastern classical music. He is currently music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and Conductor Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father was the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, and from him, Mehta received his early musical education. When he was 18, he enrolled in the Vienna state music academy from which he graduated after three years with a diploma as a conductor. He began winning international competitions and conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at age 21. Beginning in the 1960s, Mehta gained experience by substituting for celebrated maestros throughout the world. Mehta was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967; and Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1962 to 1978, being the youngest music director ever for any major North American orchestra. In 1969, he was appointed Music Adviser to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1981, Mehta became its permanent Music Director for Life. From 1978 to 1991, he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Since 1985, he has also been chief conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. He is an honorary citizen of both Florence and Tel Aviv and was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera in 1997 and of the Bavarian State Opera in 2006. The title of "Honorary Conductor" was bestowed on him by numerous orchestras throughout the world. More recently, Mehta made several tours with the Bavarian State Opera and kept up a busy schedule of guest conducting appearances until present times. In December 2006, he received the "Kennedy Center Honor" and in October 2008 was honored by the Japanese Imperial Family with the "Praemium Imperiale". In 2016, Zubin Mehta was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Teatro San Carlo, Naples.
- Birthplace: India, Mumbai
- Profession: Conductor, Music Director, Violinist
- Credits: The Bolero, Caballé Beyond the Music, Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in A Minor: Zubin Mehta, Mozart: The Requiem from Sarajevo, Georges Bizet's Carmen: Covent Garden
- Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (12 August 1644 (baptised) – 3 May 1704) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Born in the small Bohemian town of Wartenberg (now Stráž pod Ralskem), Biber worked in Graz and Kremsier (now Kroměříž) before he illegally left his Kremsier employer, Prince-Bishop Carl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, and settled in Salzburg. He remained there for the rest of his life, publishing much of his music but apparently seldom, if ever, giving concert tours. Biber was one of the most important composers for the violin in the history of the instrument. His technique allowed him to easily reach the 6th and 7th positions, employ multiple stops in intricate polyphonic passages, and explore the various possibilities of scordatura tuning. He also wrote one of the earliest known pieces for solo violin, the monumental passacaglia of the Mystery Sonatas. During Biber's lifetime, his music was known and imitated throughout Europe. In the late 18th century he was named the best violin composer of the 17th century by music historian Charles Burney. In the late 20th century Biber's music, especially the Mystery Sonatas, enjoyed a renaissance. Today, it is widely performed and recorded.
- Birthplace: Stráž pod Ralskem, Czech Republic
- Profession: Violinist
- Claude Champagne (27 May 1891 – 21 December 1965) was a Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, and violinist.
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Profession: Pianist, Composer, Violinist
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan
Dec. at 73 (1935-2008)Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2 March 1935 – 8 September 2008) was an Indian classical music violinist.- Birthplace: Tamil Nadu
- Profession: Violinist
- Credits: Rajaraja Cholan, Melnattu Marumagal, Gumastavin Magal, Navarathinam, Deivam
- Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. He is considered the most important Danish musician of his day.
- Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Profession: Conductor, Music pedagogue, Composer, Organist, Violinist
- Credits: Italian for Beginners
- Leopold von Auer (Hungarian: Auer Lipót; June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor and composer, best known as an outstanding violin teacher.
- Birthplace: Veszprém County, Hungary
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu (born 1 October 1949) is a Dutch violinist and conductor best known for creating the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra. He and his orchestra have turned classical and waltz music into a worldwide concert touring act, as successful as some of the biggest global pop and rock music acts. He resides in his native Maastricht.
- Birthplace: Maastricht, Netherlands
- Profession: Conductor, Entrepreneur, Violinist
- Credits: André Rieu in Australië, Andre Rieu op het Vrijthof
- Charles Munch (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl mynʃ]; born Charles Münch; 26 September 1891 – 6 November 1968) was an Alsacian, German-born French symphonic conductor and violinist. Noted for his mastery of the French orchestral repertoire, he was best known as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- Birthplace: France, Strasbourg
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Credits: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique: Charles Munch, Charles Munch: L'enfance du Christ
- Jean Francisque-Étienne Martinon (usually known simply as Jean Martinon (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁtinɔ̃]); 10 January 1910 – 1 March 1976) was a French conductor and composer.
- Birthplace: Lyon, France
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist
- Byron Berline (born July 6, 1944) is an American fiddle player. He is widely recognized as one of the world's premier fiddle players, known for his ability to play almost any style within the vast American tradition—from old-time to ragtime, bluegrass, Cajun, country, rock, and beyond.
- Birthplace: USA, Caldwell, Kansas
- Profession: Musician, Fiddler, Violinist
- Credits: Stay Hungry, The Rolling Stones: Under Review: 1967-1969
- Alexander Igoryevich Rybak, or in Belarusian Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak (born 13 May 1986), is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist and actor. Representing Norway in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, Rybak won the contest with 387 points—the highest tally any country has achieved in the history of Eurovision under the old voting system—with "Fairytale", a song he wrote and composed. His debut album, Fairytales, charted in the top 20 in nine European countries, including a No. 1 position in Norway and Russia. Rybak made a return to Eurovision in 2012 and 2016, playing the violin during both interval acts. He represented Norway again in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song "That's How You Write a Song".
- Birthplace: Russian Empire, Minsk
- Profession: Pianist, Singer-songwriter, Actor, Composer, Writer
- Credits: Yohan: The Child Wanderer
- Edwin Jobson (born 28 April 1955) is an English keyboardist and violinist noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K., Jethro Tull and (very briefly) Yes. He was also part of Frank Zappa's band in 1976–77. Aside from his keyboard work Jobson has also gained acclaim for his violin playing. He won the "Lifetime Achievement" award at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards. In March 2019 Eddie Jobson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.
- Birthplace: Billingham, United Kingdom
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Record producer, Songwriter, Musician, Keyboard player
- Credits: Women vs. Men
- Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer.
- Birthplace: Avranches, France
- Profession: Musician, Fiddler, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Jean-Luc Ponty: In Concert, Jean-Luc Ponty: Live in Concert
- Boris Brott, (born March 14, 1944) is a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He is one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Covent Garden. He is known for his innovative methods of introducing classical music to new audiences. Over his career, he has commissioned, performed and recorded a wide variety of Canadian works. Brott is the founder and artistic director of the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and the Brott Music Festival, both based in Hamilton, Ontario. He is the founding Music Director and Conductor Laureate of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, and Artistic Director and Conductor of the McGill Chamber Orchestra in Montreal. He is a former Principal Youth and Family conductor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, where he continues to conduct family and education concerts.
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Music Director, Violinist
- David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer. Mansfield was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was the first violinist for the New York Philharmonic. David played pedal steel guitar and fiddle in his first band, called Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, which also included two sons of Tony Bennett. Bob Dylan asked Mansfield to tour with him on his 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour; he remained in Dylan's band through their 1978 world tour.After the Revue ended in 1976, Mansfield and two other members of Dylan's band, T-Bone Burnett and Steven Soles, formed The Alpha Band. The band released three albums, The Alpha Band in 1977, Spark in the Dark in 1977, and The Statue Makers of Hollywood in 1978. While Mansfield in 1978 was working on the album, The Statue Makers of Hollywood with The Alpha Band, he appeared as a guitarist on Desire Wire by a struggling pop/rock artist Cindy Bullens that same year.In 1986 Mansfield was an initial member of Bruce Hornsby and the Range, including playing the title instrument on the hit "Mandolin Rain". However, he left the Range before their first tour. Since The Alpha Band broke up, Mansfield has continued to work as a musician in sessions for Dylan, Burnett, Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Roger McGuinn, Sam Phillips, Mark Heard, The Roches, Edie Brickell, Spinal Tap, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Victoria Williams, Loudon Wainwright III, Willie Nile, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen and others. Mansfield composed the music for the 1980 film Heaven's Gate – he appeared in the movie, playing the fiddle on roller skates – and has since gone on to write scores for a number of other films, including others directed by Heaven's Gate's Michael Cimino. Mansfield cobbled together the soundtrack album for Songcatcher. He also composed the music for the soundtrack to The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), a movie written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, whom he married in 1993. Together they adopted two children. Maisie Mansfield-Greenwald (1997) and Lulu Mansfield-Greenwald (2000). He also composed score with Van Dyke Parks for Walter Hill's Broken Trail (2006), and they were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score).
- Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Guitarist, Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: The Apostle, Heaven's Gate, Transamerica, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Club Paradise
- Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (born 14 January 1943) is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons and the singer Iraida Jansone.
- Birthplace: Latvia, Riga
- Profession: Conductor, Professor, Music Director, Violinist, Teacher
- Credits: Waldbühne Concert: A Night of Dances and Rhapsodies, In Rehearsal With Mariss Jansons, European Concert from Istanbul, A Night of Encores, New Year's Concert 2006: Vienna Philharmonic
- Michael Orest Hayvoronsky (Mykhailo Orest Haivoronsky) (Ukrainian: Михайло Орест Гайворонський) (September 15, 1892 – September 11, 1949) was a Ukrainian composer, musician, conductor, teacher, violinist, and critic.
- Birthplace: Zalischyky, Ukraine
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist, Teacher
- Rūhollāh Khāleqi (Persian: روحالله خالقی, Ruhollâ Xâleqi; born 1906 in Kerman, Iran – 12 November 1965 in Salzburg, Austria), also spelled as Khaleghi, was a prominent Iranian musician, composer, conductor and author.
- Birthplace: Kerman, Iran
- Profession: Conductor, Songwriter, Professor, Musician, Author
- Hans (Heinrich) Keller (11 March 1919 – 6 November 1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being a commentator on such disparate fields as psychoanalysis and football. In the late 1950s he invented the method of "wordless functional analysis", in which a musical composition is analysed in musical sound alone, without any words being heard or read.
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Profession: Music critic, Writer, Violinist
- Karl Klindworth (25 September 1830 – 27 July 1916) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, violinist and music publisher. He was one of Franz Liszt's pupils and later one of his closest disciples and friends, being also on friendly terms with composer Richard Wagner, of whom he was an admirer. He was highly praised by fellow musicians, including Wagner himself and Edward Dannreuther. Among his pupils were Hans von Bülow, Georgy Catoire, and Ethelbert Nevin.
- Birthplace: Hanover, Germany
- Profession: Impresario, Conductor, Composer, Violinist
- Jaap van Zweden (Dutch pronunciation: [ja:p fan zwe:dən]; English: ) (born 12 December 1960) is a Dutch conductor and violinist. He is currently music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and of the New York Philharmonic.
- Birthplace: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Profession: Conductor, Music Director, Violinist
- Ángel Sauce, (born in Caracas, Venezuela on August 2, 1911; died in Caracas, Venezuela on December 26, 1995), was a Venezuelan composer, violinist and conductor. He was founder of multiple choirs and orchestras, and for more than twelve years he directed the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra. He received two National Music Prizes in Venezuela, one in 1948 for his composition Cecilia Mujica and one in 1982 for general achievements in his lengthy career.
- Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
- Profession: Conductor, Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Alessandro Rolla (Italian pronunciation: [alesˈsandro ˈrɔlla]; 22 April 1757 – 15 September 1841) was an Italian viola and violin virtuoso, composer, conductor and teacher. His son, Antonio Rolla, was also a violin virtuoso and composer. His fame now rests mainly as "teacher of the great Paganini", yet his role was very important in the development of violin and viola technique. Some of the technical innovations that Paganini later used largely, such as left-hand pizzicato, chromatic ascending and descending scales, the use of very high positions on violin and viola, octave passages, were first introduced by Rolla.
- Birthplace: Pavia, Italy
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violist, Violinist
- Henry Lau (born October 11, 1989), commonly referred to as Henry, is a Canadian singer, musician, actor, songwriter, model, entertainer, composer, music producer and dancer mostly active in South Korea and China. He debuted in 2008 as a member of Super Junior-M. Aside from group activities, he has also produced several songs for various artists, television dramas and is a part of a composing team Noize Bank.In June 2013, Lau debuted as a solo artist with his first extended play, Trap. It peaked at #2 on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and spawned the single with the same name, which peaked at 28 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, also peaked at #18 on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100 Weekly singles. In April 2018, Lau left SM Entertainment following the expiration of his contract with them and effectively left Super Junior-M. In July 2018, Lau established his own studio, Henry Workshop. Later that year, he joined Monster Entertainment Group and signed with Korean label AXIS.
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Profession: Record producer, Songwriter, Singer-songwriter, Actor, Singer
- Credits: Final Recipe
- Shahrdad Rohani also spelled Shardad Rohani (Persian: شهرداد روحانی or شهداد روحانی, born 27 May 1954 in Tehran) is an Iranian-American composer, violinist/pianist, and conductor. His style is contemporary and he is well known for composing and conducting classical, instrumental, adult contemporary/new age, film soundtrack as well as pop music. As of August 2016, he is the music director of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.
- Birthplace: Tehran, Iran
- Profession: Conductor, Pianist, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Hello Cinema
- Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913, in Chicago – January 28, 1976, in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
- Birthplace: USA, Chicago, Illinois
- Profession: Fiddler, Singer, Violinist
- Credits: Jazz Icons: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Louis Armstrong: Good Evening Ev'rybody
- Darol Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet.
- Profession: Record producer, Songwriter, Musician, Fiddler, Violinist
- Alessandro Ignazio Marcello (Italian: [marˈtʃɛllo]; 1 February 1673 – 19 June 1747 in Venice) was an Italian nobleman and composer.
- Birthplace: Venice, Scorzè, Italy
- Profession: Mathematician, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: And Peace on Earth
- Eyvindur Y Kang (born 23 June 1971 in Corvallis, Oregon, United States) is a composer and violist. He was raised in Canada and the United States, and has since lived and worked in countries ranging from Italy to Iceland.
- Birthplace: Corvallis, Oregon
- Profession: Fiddler, Composer, Violinist
- Charles Lamoureux (pronounced [ʃaʁl la.mu.ʁø]; 28 September 1834 – 21 December 1899) was a French conductor and violinist.
- Birthplace: Bordeaux, France
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Anton Felix Schindler (13 June 1795 – 16 January 1864) was an associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was born in Meedel, Moravia, and died in Bockenheim (Frankfurt am Main).
- Profession: Conductor, Biographer, Author, Violinist
- Alexandre Clément Léon Joseph Luigini (9 March 1850 – 29 July 1906) was a French composer and conductor, especially active in the opera house. As a composer, he is now remembered almost solely for his Ballet égyptien.
- Birthplace: Lyon, France
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist
- Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (Dutch: [ˈbɛrnɑrt ˈɦaːi̯tɪŋk]; born 4 March 1929) is a Dutch conductor.
- Birthplace: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Credits: Mozart: The Magic Flute, Le Nozze Di Figaro, Prokofiev: The Love of Three Oranges, Mozart: Don Giovanni: Benjamin Luxon, Mahler: Symphony No. 4 & 7
- Francesco Maria Veracini (1 February 1690 – 31 October 1768) was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era" (Bukofzer 1947, 234), while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century" (Torchi 1901, 180). His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist" (Burney 1789, 4:569). The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.
- Birthplace: Florence, Italy
- Profession: Composer, Violinist
- Julius Stern (8 August 1820 – 27 February 1883) was a Jewish German musical pedagogue and composer.
- Birthplace: Wrocław, Poland
- Profession: Conductor, Music pedagogue, Composer, Violinist
- Balabhaskar Chandran (10 July 1978 – 2 October 2018) was an Indian musician, violinist, composer and record producer. He is best known for promoting fusion music in South India. Hailing from a musically affluent family, he was introduced to the world of instrumental music at the age of three by his uncle B. Sasikumar, a laureate in Carnatic music. Balabhaskar began his professional career at the age of 12. He made his debut as a music director by composing the soundtrack for the Malayalam film Mangalya Pallakku (1998), and was the youngest music composer to have worked in the industry at the age of 17. He had won the Bismillah Khan Yuva Sangeetkaar Puraskaar in 2008 by Kendra Sangeet Natak Academy for Instrumental Music (Violin).
- Profession: Record producer, Musician, Composer, Singer, Violinist
- Credits: Traveler, Mangalya Pallakku
- Krzesimir Marcin Dębski (Polish pronunciation: [kʐɛˈɕimir martɕiŋ ˈdɛmpski]; born 26 October 1953 in Wałbrzych) is a Polish composer, conductor and jazz violinist. His music career as a musician has been that of a performer as well as composer of classical music, opera, television and feature films.
- Birthplace: Wałbrzych, Poland
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Arranger, Composer, Jazz Violinist
- Credits: Tomas and the Falcon King, An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was a God, Battle of Warsaw 1920, Szwadron, Belarusian Waltz
- Armen Movsessian (Armenian: Արմեն Մովսեսյան, born in Yerevan, Armenia) is a violin player. His formal training as a musician began as a child. He received his high school diploma from the Tchaikovsky's School of Music for the musically gifted, and earned his B.A. and Master’s from the Yerevan Conservatory named after Komitas. He was one of only fifty-four violinists worldwide to be invited to compete in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis in 1990. This is when he decided to move to the United States and has since been named Concertmaster for the Panama National Symphony in Panama City, Panama, and for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. Movsessian was an instructor of violin, viola, and chamber music at Clark University and an instructor of violin at the Longy School of Music, both in Massachusetts. He has performed during the 2003 and 2004 Ethnicity world tours with Yanni, as well as the 2005 Yanni Live! The Concert Event, and Yanni Voices tours. USA Armen Movsessian began his formal training as a violinist at the age of seven at Tchaikovsky School of Music in Yerevan, Armenia under the leadership of Professor Mokatsian. After graduation, Armen continued his study at the Yerevan State Conservatory N.A. Komitas in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1989, Armen was appointed a Concertmaster of newly formed Armenian Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1990, Armen was invited to participate in International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and shortly after he moved to Boston where he served on the faculty of Clark University and Longy School of Music where he also earned his Artist Diploma in Performance with Distinction in 1992 under the leadership of Professor Sophie Vilker. Armen held Principal and Concertmaster positions in several orchestras in the U.S.A. and in South America. In 2002, Armen moved to Los Angeles where he worked with Los Angeles Opera and major motion picture studios such as, Warner Bros, Sony/MGM, Paramount, Universal, NBC etc., scoring for more than 120 films and followed his debut in Yanni World Tour 2003. In 2010, Armen introduced a new show to his audience under the name of Forbidden Saints with a sold out performance at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium followed by the release of a new album Forbidden Saints Live in 2011. Armen infuses his classical background with Jazz, Rock, Pop as well making him a unique and extremely well rounded musician. Armen has worked and recorded with many artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Ray Charles, Barry White, Yanni, Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra Jr., Smokey Robinson, Olga Tanon, Jose-Jose, Lucero, Cristian Castro,Olga Tanon.
- Birthplace: Yerevan, Armenia
- Profession: Musician, Composer, Violinist
- Jules Auguste Garcin [Salomon] (11 July 1830 – 10 October 1896) was a French violinist, conductor and composer of the 19th century. He was born in Bourges. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Garcin, was director of a travelling company playing opéra comique in the central and southern provinces of France. Having entered the Paris Conservatoire in adolescence, studying under Clavel and Alard, Garcin took the premier prix for violin in 1853, and entered the Opéra orchestra in 1856. He became solo violinist, then third conductor in 1871 and finally chief conductor in 1885. His long and successful teaching career at the Conservatoire de Paris began in 1875. Among his notable students were the child prodigy Henri Marteau (1874–1934) and Jules Boucherit (1877–1962). Garcin’s association with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire began in 1860, again as orchestral and then as solo violinist.In 1885 he was elected principal conductor of the Conservatoire concerts. In this post he actively promoted German choral and symphonic masterpieces, from Bach’s Mass in B minor (in 1891) to works of Brahms and Wagner (Brahms’s music was then the object of much adverse criticism in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War). He was a founder-member of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871. He wrote some music (including a violin concerto and viola concertino), a certain amount of which was published by Lemoine (some now in US-Bp). Franck’s Symphony in D minor premiere took place on February 17, 1889 at the Paris Conservatoire under the direction of Jules Garcin. This Symphony was dedicated to Henri Duparc, who was a member of “la bande á Franck” at the Conservatoire, along with Vincent D’Indy, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Paul Dukas. Three years later in 1892, Garcin retired and relinquished the post due to illness, but continued teaching. He died in Paris in 1896. Performed on violins by Antonio Stradivari "Il Cremonese" 1715 (now known as the Ex-Joachim), Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 1731 (now known as the Ex-Garcin), as well as "Le Messie" copy of 1868 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.
- Profession: Conductor, Composer, Violinist, Teacher
- Ivan Alexander Galamian (Armenian: Իվան Ղալամեան; February 5 [O.S. January 23] 1903 – April 14, 1981) was an American violin teacher of the twentieth century.
- Birthplace: Tabriz, Iran
- Profession: Violinist
- Elias Breeskin (Russian: Элиас Бреескин; Ukrainian: Еліас Бреескін; 1896 – May 9, 1969) was a violinist, composer and conductor. Elias was born on October 25, 1895 in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), a small village in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire, now part of Ukraine, which has now morphed into the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk, with over a million inhabitants. The dam on the Dneiper River, shown on the film Doctor Zhivago, is in this city.
- Birthplace: Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
- Profession: Conductor, Film Score Composer, Composer, Violinist
- Credits: Chaplin's Art of Comedy, Captain Scarlett
- Angelo Lavagnino built up his entertainment career by putting his musical skills to use in the world of Hollywood. Early in his entertainment career, Lavagnino's music was featured in films like the Gina Lollobrigida dramatic adaptation "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1957) and the Vittorio De Sica comedic adaptation "The Miller's Wife" (1957). His music was also used in the romance "The Wind Cannot Read" (1958) with Dirk Bogarde, the sci-fi picture "Gorgo" (1961) with Bill Travers and the Anthony Quinn adaptation "The Savage Innocents" (1961). His work was also in "Agent 8 3/4" (1965). Later in his career, Lavagnino worked on "Beatrice Cenci" (1969). Lavagnino passed away in August 1987 at the age of 78.
- Birthplace: Genoa, Liguria, Italy
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Composer
- Credits: Chimes at Midnight, Othello, Gorgo, The Wind Cannot Read, Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon
- Dmitry Yulianovich Sitkovetsky (Russian: Дмитрий Юлианович Ситковецкий; born September 27, 1954) is a Soviet-Russian born classical violinist, conductor and arranger, notably of the orchestral version of J S Bach's Goldberg Variations[1][2].
- Birthplace: Baku, Azerbaijan
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- Lucien Louis Capet (8 January 1873 – 18 December 1928) was a French violinist, pedagogue and composer.
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Profession: Composer, Violinist, Teacher
- Emil Albertovich Cooper (Russian: Эмиль Альбертович Купер, Russian pronunciation: [ɪˈmʲilʲ ɐlʲˈbʲɛrtɐvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈkupʲɪr]), also known as Emil Kuper (December 13 [OS December 1], 1877, Kherson, Ukraine, then in Russian Empire – November 16, 1960, New York) was a Russian conductor and violinist, of English ancestry. He graduated music school in Odessa, Ukraine as violinist and composer. Until 1898 he played recitals as violinist and learned conducting independently. He also studied conducting with Arthur Nikisch. In 1899, together with tenor Leonid Sobinov and bass Feodor Chaliapin, he toured Russian cities conducting opera. He conducted in many venues in Russia, Western Europe and the United States subsequently. He premiered Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel in 1909; and Reinhold Glière's epic Third Symphony, 'Ilya Murometz', on 23 March 1912. He also conducted Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchey the Immortal in January 1917 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He emigrated to the West in 1924, and was a long-time staff conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. From 1944 until his death in 1960, Cooper conducted for Pauline Donalda's Opera Guild of Montreal.
- Birthplace: Kherson, Ukraine
- Profession: Conductor, Violinist
- David Kim may refer to: David Kim (violinist) (born 1963), American violinist David Kim (restaurateur), American businessman and CEO of Mexican fast food chain Baja Fresh David J. Kim (born 1979), CEO and founder of C2 Education Centers David Kwangshin Kim (born 1935), Korean Protestant Christian pastor
- Birthplace: Carbondale, Illinois
- Profession: Concertmaster, Physician, Violinist, Teacher
- Jacopo Melani (6 July 1623 – 18 August 1676) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. He was born and died in Pistoia, and was the brother of composer Alessandro Melani and singer Atto Melani.
- Birthplace: Pistoia, Italy
- Profession: Opera composer, Organist, Violinist
