About Efrem Zimbalist
Efrem Zimbalist (April 21 [O.S. April 9], 1889 – February 22, 1985) was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. == Early life == Efrem Zimbalist was born on April 9, 1889, O.S., equivalent to April 21, 1889 in the Gregorian calendar, in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, the son of Jewish parents Maria (née Litvinoff) and Aron Zimbalist (Цимбалист, Russian pronunciation: [tsɨmbɐˈlʲist]), a conductor. By the age of nine, Efrem Zimbalist was first violin in his father's orchestra. At age 12 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and studied under Leopold Auer. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1907 after winning a gold medal and the Rubinstein Prize, and by age 21 was considered one of the world's greatest violinists. == Career == After graduation he debuted in Berlin (playing the Brahms Concerto) and London in 1907 and in the United States in 1911, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, when he gave the first American performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto. In 1912, he played the Glazunov Concerto in a concert marking Leopold Stokowski's first appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra. He then settled in the United States. He did much to popularize the performance of classical music in his adopted country. In 1917, he was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha Chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
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