Midori Goto was a Japanese-American child prodigy, who made her first performance at 6 years old and is famous for her debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta when she was only 11 years old. At aged 14, she played with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood, where he famously knelt before her in awe at her performance. She currently chairs the Strings Department at USC's Thornton School of Music.
Ruggiero Ricci is an American violinist mostly known for his recordings of the works of Paganini (see #1). Like Midori (#10) and many of the others on this list, he had his public debut at an early age. At ten years old he performed the works by Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps and became known as a child prodigy. Ricci has been a prolific performer, with over 6,000 concerts in 65 countries and over 500 recordings before his death at the age of 94.
Nathan Milstein grew up in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), where he began his violin studies at the age of 7. At age 11, he studied under Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and then Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium. In 1929, he made his American debut with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He eventually settled in New York and became an American citizen. Milstein is considered one of the greatest violinists of the past century and only retired in his mid 80s after a severe hand injury.
Itzak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist who had a unique background, teaching himself to play on a toy fiddle until he was of age to be accepted into the Shulamit Conservatory and at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He contracted polio at age four but was still able to give his first recital at age ten, by playing the violin while seated. He has appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice in 1958, made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and toured extensively, including the White House and the New York Philharmonic. He has also been featured as a soloist on a number of film scores, such as the very well-known theme of Schindler's List by John Williams.
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler, an Austrian-born violinist, is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of all time. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and in Paris, making his United States debut at Steinway Hall in New York City on November 10, 1888. Like many great success stories, he had a temporary setback after being rejected for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic. He actually left music to study medicine and was in the army for awhile before returning to playing the violin in 1899, for the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1943, he became a naturalized citizen of the U.S., where he lived for the rest of his life, giving his last public concert in 1947.
Yehudi Menuhin was an American violinist of Jewish descent, who began learning violin at age four with Sigmund Anker. Like many of these other great violinists, he made his public debut at a young age. At only seven, he played with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. During World War II, he played for the Allied soldiers, with piano accompaniment by the famous English composer Benjamin Britten. Despite his Jewish background, he was one of the first Jewish performers to return to Germany to perform, in the wake of the Holocaust. In 1947, he played with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler, standing up to Jewish critics and insisting that he wished to restore Germany's spirit through music. He spent his final days before passing away, in Berlin.
Isaac Stern was a Soviet-born violinist who was taught violin by his mother, until he enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1928. His public debut was at age 15, for the San Francisco Symphony under Pierre Monteux. He began collaborating with Russian-born pianist Alexander Zakin in 1940, a relationship that would continue until 1977. Stern was celebrated for his recordings, including concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky, and the more modern works of Bartók, Stravinsky and Bernstein. Stern is also legendary for discovering new young talent, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman.
David Oistrakh was a Soviet violinist who performed his first concert at the age of six. In 1914, at the age of six, Oistrakh performed his debut concert. He entered the Odessa Conservatory in 1923 and graduated in 1926. In 1927, Oistrakh moved to Moscow, where he eventually taught and became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. During World War II, he was an active performer in the Soviet Union and became close friends with Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. The Soviet Union would not let him leave the country to perform abroad. Of all of the violinist on this list, he played in the most heroic conditions, playing for soldiers on the front lines. Perhaps his most praiseworthy act was a full performance of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto during the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942, during one of the bloodiest battles in world history. After the war ended, he was finally allowed to leave the Soviet Union and even made it to the west, including France and the U.S.
Jascha Heifetz was a Lithuanian violinist who learned basic bowing and fingering techniques before he was 3 years old. By 5 years old, he was taking official lessons and he made his public debut by seven, playing the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. He played at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, Germany and Scandinavia. He met Kreisler (see above #6) in Berlin. Kreisler was greatly impressed by the youngster. Heifetz continued to receive rave reviews throughout Europe and when he moved to the U.S. as a teen, the audience was ecstatic about his debut at Carnegie Hall. Most critics would agree that Heifetz's technical abilities on the violin are incomparable. He invented a modern, new style of violin playing, with rapid vibrato and dramatically emotional use of portamento. Heifetz had a long and meaningful career. Even after a shoulder injury prevented him from playing, he continued to teach in California (at UCLA, the University of Southern California and his private studio in Beverly Hills), until his death.
Even to the layperson, Paganini's name is synonymous with great violin playing. An Italian violinist and composer, Paganini first learned mandolin from his father, at the age of five. At seven, he moved on to violin and quickly excelled at it. After a breakthrough 1813 concert at La Scala in Milan, he became famous enough to tour Europe, hitting every major city capital, from Poland to Britain. He suffered from a variety of health conditions throughout his life, from depression to Marfan syndrome. However, like Heifetz (#2), when playing became too much for him, he took on students. His impressive dexterity in fingering and bow techniques were frowned upon at the time by his contemporaries but renewed interest in these stylish techniques. Because of his talent and a slightly bawdy lifestyle, he was widely rumored to have an association with the devil. This rumor plagued him even after his death. It took the Church 4 years and an appeal to the Pope to allow his body to be transported from his death in Nice to his home in Genoa and 32 more years until his body was finally laid to rest.