About Grigoraș Dinicu
Grigoraș Ionică Dinicu (Romanian: [ɡriɡoˈraʃ joˈnikə diˈniku]; April 3, 1889 – March 28, 1949) was a Romanian violin virtuoso and composer of Roma ethnicity. He is most famous for his often-played virtuoso violin showpiece "Hora staccato" (1906) and for making popular the tune Ciocârlia, composed by his grandfather Angheluș Dinicu for nai. It is rumored that Jascha Heifetz once said that Grigoraș Dinicu was the greatest violinist he had ever heard. In the 1930s he was involved in the political movement of the Romanian Roma and was made honorary president of the "General Union of the Romanian Roma". Other well known compositions are: Hora mărțișorului (Mărțișor, literally "little March", is a major Romanian seasonal holiday on March 1), Ceasornicul (The Clock) and Căruța poștei (The Post Wagon). == Early life and education == He was born in Bucharest, in the neighborhood of the lăutari named Scaune (Chairs). Because his father was busy with his activity as a lăutar, he handed him over to "moș Zamfir", an old violinist, who taught him the first tunes. He attended the Bucharest Conservatory, where he studied with Dumitru Georgescu-Kiriac. The most famous of his teachers was Carl Flesch, the violin pedagogue, with whom he studied in 1902. He received a scholarship at the Vienna Conservatory, but he was not allowed to go there because he was Romani, an episode that he never forgot.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.