In memory of Efrem Zimbalist, Sr.
A refined player and composer with a great enthusiasm for music, Efrem Zimbalist Sr. shared his special love of violin with his many pupils, many of whom went on to achieve their own individual success.
Mr. Zimbalist was born in 1889 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He studied first with his conductor father, then with the great Leopold Auer at the Imperial Conservatory of Music at St. Petersburg.
Engagements followed throughout Europe, and at the age of twenty-two, he made his American debut with the Boston Symphony.
In 1928, Mr. Zimbalist came to Philadelphia to join the faculty of the Curtis Institute, and taught for forty years, spending twenty-seven as director. He remade the Institute "in the image of an old-world conservatory."
"The violinist's violinist."
Throughout his years at Curtis, his career flourished beyond academics. He continued to travel the world and perform, especially in the Orient, where he introduced the people to Western music.
Mr. Zimbalist was also held in high esteem as a composer, and his catalogue included a variety of symphonies and sonatas, the operas "Landara," and "Two Stories," an operetta, "Honeydew" and a tone poem, "Daphnis and Chloe" which was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
His farewell performances in 1949 and 1950 were attended by an audience which considered him "the violinist's violinist."
The body of works that he left behind are indeed a legacy.
