In Sunday’s (5/6) New York Times, Margalit Fox writes, “Zvi Zeitlin, an internationally renowned violinist known for interpreting the work of contemporary composers, died on Wednesday in Rochester. He was 90. His death was announced by the Eastman School of Music. At his death, Mr. Zeitlin was distinguished professor of violin at the school, which is part of the University of Rochester. Mr. Zeitlin, who had announced his intention to retire from Eastman this summer, had taught there since 1967. Simultaneously maintaining an active concert schedule, he was for decades part of a triumvirate of sought-after violin pedagogues—the others were Dorothy DeLay of the Juilliard School and Josef Gingold of Indiana University—teaching at major American conservatories. … He was closely associated with the work of modernist composers like Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss and George Rochberg; he gave the world premieres of pieces written for him by Gunther Schuller, Paul Ben-Haim and Carlos Surinach, among others. Mr. Zeitlin was known in particular as an interpreter of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal, fiendishly difficult Violin Concerto. … Mr. Zeitlin made his New York debut in 1951 at Town Hall, performing Bach, Schubert and Stravinsky. He first appeared with the New York Philharmonic in 1967, playing the Schoenberg under Leonard Bernstein.”
Posted May 7, 2012
