Michael Rabin ( ; May 2, 1936January 19, 1972) was an American

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist. He has been described as "one of the most talented and tragic violin virtuosi of his generation".

Biography

Michael Rabin was of

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish descent. His mother Jeanne was a

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named aft ...

-trained pianist, and his father George was a violinist in the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

. He began to study the violin at the age of seven. His parents encouraged his musical development. After a lesson with

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...

, the master advised him to study with

Ivan Galamian Ivan Alexander Galamian (; April 14, 1981) was an Armenian-American violin teacher of the twentieth century who was the violin teacher of many seminal violin players including Itzhak Perlman and Kyung Wha Chung. Biography Galamian was born in ...

, who said he had "no weaknesses, never." He began studies with Galamian in New York and at the

Meadowmount School of Music The Meadowmount School of Music, founded in 1944 by Ivan Galamian, is a 7-week summer school in the town of Lewis, Essex County, New York, Lewis (mailing address Westport, New York, Westport) in Upstate New York for young violinists, cellists, vio ...

and the Juilliard School. His Carnegie Hall debut took place in January 1950, at the age of 13, as soloist with the National Orchestral Association, playing Vieuxtemps' Concerto No. 5 under the direction of

Léon Barzin Léon Eugene Barzin (November 27, 1900April 29, 1999) was a Belgian-born American conductor and founder of the National Orchestral Association (NOA), the oldest surviving training orchestra in the United States. Barzin was also the founding mu ...

. Subsequently, he appeared with a number of American orchestras before his

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

debut on 29 November 1951, at the age of 15, in the Paganini D major Concerto, with

Dimitri Mitropoulos Dimitri Mitropoulos (; – 2 November 1960) was a Greek and American conductor, pianist, and composer. Life and career Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angelikē (Angeliki) Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods s ...

conducting the New York Philharmonic. His 1958 recording of this concerto is considered by many to be the most impressive recording of this work, and the recording itself is notable for the fullness of tone. His first London appearance took place on 13 December 1954, at age 18, playing the

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

Concerto in D at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

with the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

. Rabin recorded concertos by

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonie ...

Glazunov Glazunov (masculine, ) or Glazunova (feminine, ) is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), Russian composer ** Glazunov Glacier in Antarctica named after Alexander * Andrei Glazunov, 19th-cent ...

, Paganini (No. 1 in D major; 2 recordings), Wieniawski ( No. 1 in F-sharp minor, No. 2 in D minor) and Tchaikovsky, as well as Bruch's ''

Scottish Fantasy The ''Scottish Fantasy'' in E-flat major (), Op. 46, is a composition for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch. Completed in 1880 in music, 1880, it was dedicated to the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate. It is a movement (music), four-movement ...

'' and the Paganini Caprices for solo violin. He recorded the

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

Sonata No. 3 in C major for solo violin, and the Third and Fourth sonatas for solo violin by

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Early years Born in Liège, Ysaÿe began ...

, as well as other virtuoso pieces, including an album with the

Hollywood Bowl Orchestra The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (HBO) is a symphony orchestra that is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl. John Mauceri led the orchestra from its founding in 1990 ...

. Rabin played in a

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

style. For many years, he played the "Kubelik" Guarnerius del Gesù of 1735. He toured widely, playing in all major cities in the U.S., Europe, South America, Southern Africa, and Australia. He even appeared on a 1951 episode of the variety television series "

Texaco Star Theatre ''Texaco Star Theater'' is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Mi ...

." During a recital in

, he suddenly lost his balance and fell forward. This was an early sign of a

neurological Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the s ...

condition which was to limit his career from then on. His death, at 35, resulted from a fall in his apartment in New York City.BBC Radio 3 – "The Life and Genius of Michael Rabin", 11 December 2012
Accessed 16 May 2015

References

* ''Michael Rabin: America's Virtuoso Violinist'', by Anthony Feinstein (2005) * Played the violin solos in the 1954 MGM film 'Rhapsody' starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...

* CD program notes, Paganini Caprices Op. 1 for unaccompanied violin, Michael Rabin, EMI Classics {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabin, Michael 1936 births 1972 deaths American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American male classical violinists Juilliard School alumni Jewish violinists Accidental deaths from falls Jewish classical violinists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American classical violinists