Jascha Heifetz

From Wikipedia Jascha Heifetz ˈhaɪfɪts February 2 OS January 20 1901 December 10 1987 was a Lithuanianborn American violinist He was born in Vilnius As a teen he moved with his family to the United States where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received He had a long and successful performing and recording career after an injury to his right bowing arm he focused on teaching The New York Times called him perhaps the greatest violinist of all time Heifetz played a featured role in the movie They Shall Have Music 1939 directed by Archie Mayo and written by John Howard Lawson and Irmgard von Cube He played himself stepping in to save a music school for poor children from foreclosure He later appeared in the 1947 film Carnegie Hall performing an abridged version of the first movement of Tchaikovskys Violin Concerto with the orchestra led by Fritz Reiner and consoling the star of the picture who had watched his performance Heifetz later recorded the complete Tchaikovsky concerto with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as one of RCA Victors Living Stereo discs In 1951 he appeared in the film Of Men and Music In 1962 he appeared in a televised series of his master classes and in 1971 Heifetz on Television aired an hourlong color special that featured the violinist performing a series of short works the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch and the Chaconne from the Partita No 2 by JS Bach Heifetz even conducted the orchestra as the surviving video recording documents The most recent film featuring Heifetz Jascha Heifetz Gods Fiddler premiered on April 16 2011 at the Colburn School of Music It is described as The only film biography of the worlds most renowned violinist featuring family home movies in Los Angeles and all over the world The documentarylike film talks about Heifetzs life and accomplishments and gives an inside view of his personal life Heifetz died at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles California in December 1987