Stern, Isaac

ISAAC STERN

Born: Kreminiecz, Russia, 21 July 1920; died New York, New York, 22 September 2001

Genre: Classical

One of the foremost violinists of his day, Isaac Stern was also one of the most influential and powerful figures in the classical music world. He is credited with having saved Carnegie Hall in the 1950s when it was threatened by developers. He helped promote the careers of numerous young colleagues, and he acted as a kind of international cultural ambassador, promoting various global causes.

Born in Russia in 1920, Stern emigrated to the United States with his family when he was ten months old. The family settled in San Francisco, where Stern began learning the violin at the age of eight, studying with Naourn Blinder and Louis Persinger. Stern gave his first solo recital at the age of thirteen, and at the age of sixteen made his professional debut with the San Francisco Symphony.

He made his New York debut at Town Hall in 1937 and his Carnegie Hall debut in 1943, by which time he was recognized as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. In the 1940s he performed extensively throughout the United States, but also traveled abroad to play for Allied troops in Greenland, Iceland, and the South Pacific. He also toured Australia and Europe. In 1951 he made a historic tour of the Soviet Union.

Stern always had an interest in chamber music, and in 1961 joined with cellist Leonard Rose and pianist Eugene Istomin to form a piano trio. The trio performed until Rose's death in 1984. Stern's wide-ranging performing career brought him to most of the world's major concert halls, performing with the world's leading orchestras and with distinguished colleagues in more than 100 concerts a year.

In the late 1950s he became politically active when developers threatened to tear down Carnegie Hall and build an office tower. He organized a campaign to help save it and became its president—a post he held for forty years. In 1986 he oversaw the hall's extensive restoration, and in 1997 the main hall was renamed after him.

Stern was a founding member of the National Endowment for the Arts and founder of the Jerusalem Music Center. In 1974 he was named Commander of the French Ordre de la Couronne, was made a Fellow of Jerusalem and awarded the Commander's Cross by the Danish government and the Albert Schweitzer Music Award. He won a Kennedy Center Honor in 1984, and was named Musical America's Musician of the Year in 1986. He won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and an Emmy Award that year for a televised concert celebrating the reopening of Carnegie Hall after its restoration. In 1991 he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts, and in 1992 the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1979 he made a historic trip to perform in China, and the film from that trip From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China won a 1981 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Full-Length Documentary. Other film projects include playing the role of violinist Eugene Ysaye in Tonight We Sing (1953), and playing in the soundtrack of the motion picture Fiddler on the Roof (1971). On television he was featured on 60 Minutes, Sesame Street, Live From Lincoln Center, and numerous other shows, and was the subject of a biography on the Arts & Entertainment network in 1993, which was later released as a home video.

Stern made more than 100 recordings of more than 200 works. In 1985 he was named Sony's first "artist laureate" in recognition of his long association with the label. His repertoire was extensive, encompassing all of the standard violin solo, chamber, and concerto literature, and he was committed to performing contemporary music, premiering works by Leonard Bernstein, Krzysztof Penderecki, William Schuman, and George Rochberg.

In 1991 he went to Israel to perform during the Persian Gulf War. At a concert in Jerusalem, air raid sirens began to go off during the performance and the audience began donning gas masks, but Stern played on, completing the program. That year he also helped organize and perform in Carnegie Hall's hundredth anniversary concert, which was broadcast live on PBS.

Throughout his life Stern was a teacher, holding master classes around the world. He is credited with helping to launch the careers of such artists as Emmanuel Ax, YoYo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, and Yefim Bronfman.

Stern was an artist very much in the tradition of the old school. His playing was heartfelt and his musicianship was not bound by the latest musicological canons. In later years, though he still toured and performed frequently, much of his energy and attention was taken up with his various administrative and educational projects.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Isaac Stern: A Life in Music (Sony, 1995).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

C. Potok and I. Stern, My First 79 Years: Isaac Stern (New York, 1999).

WEBSITE:

www.isaacstern.com.

douglas mclennan