Musicians - Yehudi Menuhin

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	Musicians - Yehudi Menuhin

The Right Honourable Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE (April 22, 1916 – March 12, 1999) was a Jewish American-born violinist, violist, and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was a student of Louis Persinger, George Enescu, and Adolf Busch. The name Yehudi means 'Jew' in Hebrew.

Early career

Born in New York City, Menuhin began learning violin at age three under the violinist Sigmund Anker. He gave his first performance as a solo violinist at the age of seven, alongside the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He later studied under the Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu. After which he made several recordings with his sister Hephzibah who was a pianist.

World War II musician

Yehudi Menuhin performed for allied soldiers during World War II, and went with the composer Benjamin Britten to perform for the inmates of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, after its liberation in April 1945. He went back to Germany in 1947 to perform music under the conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler as an act of reconciliation, becoming the first Jewish musician to go back to Germany after the Holocaust. After building early success on richly romantic and tonally opulent performances, he experienced considerable physical and artistic difficulties caused by overwork during World War II and unfocused early training. Careful practice and study combined with meditation and yoga helped him overcome many of these problems, and he continued to perform to an advanced age, becoming known for profound interpretations of an austere quality. When he finally started recording, he became famous for practicing pieces of music by deconstructing phrases one note at a time.

World interactions

In 1952, Menuhin met and befriended the influential yogi B.K.S. Iyengar. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris and elsewhere. This was the first time that many Westerners had been exposed to yoga.

In 1962 he established the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey. He also established the music program at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, California sometime around then. In 1965 he received an honorary knighthood.

Later career

During the 1980s he made jazz recordings with Stéphane Grappelli and of Eastern music with the great sitarist Ravi Shankar. In 1985 he was awarded British citizenship and was now entitled to the accolade "Sir Yehudi" as his knighthood was no longer honorary. In 1990 he was the first conductor for the Asian Youth Orchestra which toured around Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong with Julian Lloyd Webber and a group of young talented musicians from all over Asia.

In 1993 he was created a life peer as Baron Menuhin, of Stoke D'Abernon in the County of Surrey. Lord Menuhin died in Berlin following a brief illness, from complications of bronchitis.

Yehudi Menuhin was survived by four children - Krov and Zamira from his first wife Nola Nicholas (daughter of an Australian industrialist) whom he divorced and two sons by his second wife Diana Gould (British ballerina and actress), Gerard and Jeremy, a pianist.

Other trivia

His pupils include Nigel Kennedy and Hungarian violist Csaba Erdelyi.

Menuhin credited the German-Jewish philosopher Constantin Brunner with providing him with "a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life" (Conversations with Menuhin: 32-34).

Arguably the most famous of Menhuin's violins is the "Lord Wilton" Guarneri del Gesù violin made in 1742.

In 1990 he was awarded the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize in recognition of his lifetime of contributions.

Soon after his death, the Royal Academy of Music acquired the Yehudi Menuhin Archive, one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections ever assembled by an individual musician.

In October 2004, the New Internationalist magazine told the story of how Menuhin got his name.
Obliged to find an apartment of their own my parents searched the neighbourhood and chose one within walking distance of the park. Showing them out after they had viewed it, the landlady said: “And you’ll be glad to know I don’t take Jews.” Her mistake made clear to her, the antisemitic landlady was renounced, and another apartment found. But her blunder left its mark. Back on the street my mother made a vow. Her unborn baby would have a label proclaiming his race to the world. He would be called “The Jew.”

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