Nathan Milstein

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Nathan Mironovich Milstein (31 December, 1903 — 21 December, 1992) was a Russian violinist who took United States citizenship in 1942.

He is widely considered one of the 20th century's finest violinists and was especially well known for his interpretations of the unaccompanied Bach sonatas and partitas and Romantic works. He is also known for his long career: he performed at a high level of excellence in public into his mid-80s, only to retire after suffering a broken hand.

Among Milstein's teachers were two celebrated violinists, Leopold Auer in St. Petersburg and Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium. He told filmaker Christopher Nupen, director of "Nathan Milstein - A Portrait", that he learned almost nothing from Ysaÿe but enjoyed his company enormously.

He was born in Odessa. As a child, he was forced by his mother to take violin lessons to keep him out of mischief and studied with Piotr Stolyarsky (also David Oistrakh's teacher). When he was 11, Leopold Auer invited him to become one of his students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

When Auer went to Norway in 1917, Milstein went back to Odessa. In 1921, he went to Kiev and met Vladimir Horowitz. They performed together (as "children of the revolution") throughout the Soviet Union and struck up a life-long friendship. In 1925, they went on a concert tour of Western Europe together.

Milstein made his American debut in 1929 with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He eventually settled in New York, although he repeatedly toured throughout Europe.

Milstein was also a transcriber and composer, arranging many works for violin and writing his own cadenzas for many concertos. One of his best known compositions is Paganiniana which is a set of variations on various themes from the works of Niccolò Paganini.

He received a Grammy Award in 1975 and was awarded the Legion of Honour by France in 1968. He was also awarded Kennedy Center honors by President Reagan.

He died in London ten days before his 89th birthday. ^[1]