Dushkin, Samuel

views updated

DUSHKIN, SAMUEL

DUSHKIN, SAMUEL (1891–1976), violinist. Dushkin was born in Suwalki, Poland, and studied with Guillaume Remy (violin) and Ganaye (composition) at the Paris Conservatoire, and with *Amar and *Kreisler in New York. After his Paris début in 1918, he toured widely and gave many important first performances, notably of Ravel's Tzigane (Amsterdam, 1925) and Stravinsky's Violin Concerto (Berlin, 1931). Stravinsky, who composed it with technical advice from Dushkin, often accompanied him in it at subsequent performances. Dushkin also collaborated with Stravinsky in making transcriptions from Pulcinella and Le baiser de la fée and recorded the Duo concertant with him. He gave the first performances of a considerable amount of chamber music by Prokofiev, *Milhaud, Poulenc, and others. Dushkin edited, and in some cases transcribed, virtuoso music for the violin. Some are in fact his own compositions attributed to earlier composers, such as Johann Benda and Boccherini. He also published teaching manuals for the violin.

add. bibliography:

Grove online; mgg2; R. Ellero, Le Composizioni Violinistiche di Stravinskij per Dushkin, Tesi di laurea Univ. degli Studi di Venezia (1991/2).

[Max Loppert /

Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]