EFREM ZIMBALIST (ROSTOV-ON-DON, RUSSIA, APRIL 21, 1889 – RENO, NEVADA, U.S., FEBRUARY 22, 1985)
He was a concert violinist, composer, teacher, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Zimbalist was born in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, the son of Jewish parents Maria (née Litvinoff) and Aron Zimbalist, who was a conductor. By the age of nine, Efrem Zimbalist was first violin in his father’s orchestra. At age 12 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and studied under Leopold Auer. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1907 after winning a gold medal and the Rubinstein Prize, and by age 21 was considered one of the world’s greatest violinists. After graduation he debuted in Berlin (playing the Brahms Concerto) and London in 1907 and in the United States in 1911, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1912, he played the Glazunov Concerto in a concert marking Leopold Stokowski’s first appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra. He then settled in the United States. He did much to popularize the performance of early music. In 1917, he was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity’s Alpha Chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He retired as a violinist in 1949, but returned in 1952 to give the first performance of the Violin Concerto by Gian Carlo Menotti, which is dedicated to him. He retired again in 1955. He served as a juror of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962 and 1966. In 1928, Zimbalist began teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was director of the school from 1941 to 1968. His pupils included such distinguished musicians as Aaron Rosand,Oscar Shumsky, Joseph Silverstein, Jascha Brodsky, John Dalley, Michael Tree, Felix Slatkin, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Harold Wippler, Leonid Bolotine, and Hidetaro Suzuki. His own compositions include a violin concerto, the American Rhapsody, a tone poem called Daphnis and Chloe, a Fantasy on themes from The Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and a piece called Sarasateana, for violin and piano. He also wrote an opera, Landara, which premiered in Philadelphia in 1956. Zimbalist married the famous American soprano Alma Gluck and they toured together for a time. Alma Gluck died in 1938. In 1943, having been a widower for five years, he married the Curtis Institute of Music’s founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, daughter of publisher Cyrus Curtis, and 14 years his senior. He died in 1985, at the age of 95. His and Alma’s son, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and their granddaughter, Stephanie Zimbalist, both became popular actors.
TRACKLIST
Alabama (Spalding) Victor 74443
Andantino (Reger) from 2nd Sonate Op. 42, Book 1 No. 2 Victor 64518
Angel’s Serenade (Braga) with Alma Gluck and with Lutsky (piano) Victrola 89092
Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod) with Alma Gluck with Lutsky (piano) Victrola 8026-A
Berceuse, op. 20 no. 5 (piano Josef Hofmann) The Curtis Institute Recital, Victor test
Carmen Fantasie (Bizet, arr. Sarasate) Part 1 and Part 2 with T. Saidenberg (piano) Columbia W38 55086 W38 55087
Chanson Hebraique (Ravel-Pasternack) with Alma Gluck Victrola 87519
Chant d’automne (Tchaikovsky) Victor 64577
Chant de la Veslemoy (Halvorsen) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 64737
Chant negre, op. 32, no. 1 (Kramer) Victrola 64736
Der Spielmann (Hildach) Victor 88583
Die Meistersinger (Wagner) Prize Song Columbia J7916 98738
Elegie (Song of Mourning) (Massenet) with Alma Gluck Victrola 3004-A
Fiddle and I (Goodeve) with Alma Gluck and Rosario Bourdon Victrola 88539
Fortune teller Gypsy love song (Herbert) Victrola 1056-A
God be with you till we meet again (Rankin-Tomer) Alma Gluck Victor 3005-A
Guitarrero (Drdla) Victrola 1056-B
Harlequin’s serenade from Les millions d’Arlequin (Drigo) Victor 74467
Hatikva (Zionist Hymn, Hatikvoh) with Alma Gluck Victrola 87296
Hebräisches Lied und Tanz with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 887-B
Humoresque (Tor Aulin) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 887-A
Hungarian dance no. 20, D minor (Brahms) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victor 74303
Improvisation on a Japanese tune (Zimbalist) (Emmanuel Bay piano) Columbia W149718
In the hour of trial (Hymn) (Montgomery-Lane) with Alma Gluck and Ralph Kinder (organist) Victrola 87300
Irish Love Song Op. 22 (Lang) with Alma Gluck Victor 64346
Le Bonheur est chose legere (Saint-Saëns) with Alma Gluck and Sam Chotzinoff Victor 87209
Le cygne (Saint-Saëns) with Eugene Lutsky (piano) Victrola 74338
Le Deluge Prelude (Saint-Saëns) with Francis Moore (piano) Victrola 64827
Le Nil (Fernand-Leroux) with Alma Gluck Victor 88358
Légende, op. 17 (Wieniawski) with Lutsky (piano) Victrola 74337
Long ago from four songs, Op. 56 (MacDowell) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 64266
Massa’s in de Cold Cold Ground (Foster) with with String Orchestra and Celesta Victrola 64638
Menuett in G…Gavotte in D (Beethoven and Gossec) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 74444
Millions d’Arlequin (Drigo) Valse bluette Columbia 5314 146918
Old Black Joe (Foster) Victor 64640
Old folks at home (Swanee River) Violin obbligato Dvorak’s Humoresque with Alma Gluck and Sam Chotzinoff Victrola 3006-A
Orientale (Cesar Cui) with Sam Chotzinoff (piano) Victrola 64261
Polish dance (Zimbalist) Victor 64562
Ruslan and Lyudmila (Glinka) Persian song Victor BVE-34445
Russian Dance (Zimbalist) with Emanuel Balaban (piano) Victrola 64995
Salut d’amour (Elgar) with Harry Kaufman (piano) Victrola 66101
Serenade (Moszkowski) Victrola 64576
Serenade (Pierne) with Emanuel Balaban (piano) Victrola 64936
Serenata, op. 40 ( D’Ambrosio) Victrola 64710
Sing me to sleep (Bingham-Green) with Alma Gluck Victor 88573
Song without words (Tchaikovsky) Victrola 66119
Souvenir (Drdla) with Francis Moore (piano) Victrola 64813
Spring song Song without words op. 62. Nr. 6 (Mendelssohn) Victrola 66034
Swedish Cradle Song (Folk song) with Alma Gluck Victrola 87566
The lost chord (Sullivan) with Alma Gluck Victrola 88593
The Monotone (Cornelius) with Alma Gluck Victor 87208
The Rosary (Nevin) with Alma Gluck Victrola 3006-B
The zephyr (Hubay) Columbia 5314 146917
Walz in Gb Op.70 No.1 (Chopin) HMV DA788 e
Wenn die Schwalben heimwarts zieh’n (Abt) with Alma Gluck Victrola 87236
Zapateado (Sarasate) (Emmanuel Bay piano) Columbia 50102-D 98561
Zigeunerweisen (Sarasate) Columbia 88082 A W 95
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