Menuhin, Yehudi

▪ 2000

Lord Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon 

      American violinist and conductor (b. April 22, 1916, New York, N.Y.—d. March 12, 1999, Berlin, Ger.), began studying violin at age four and astonished an audience three years later when he played Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony. By the time he was 13, Menuhin was an international sensation; he was hailed for his intuitive technique, intonation, and interpretive talents at concerts in New York City, Paris, Brussels, London, and Berlin, where Albert Einstein reportedly hugged him and said, “Now I know there is a God in heaven!” In 1932 Menuhin recorded Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto with the composer conducting. Studies in Paris with composer-violinist Georges Enesco were profoundly influential and led to a lifelong friendship, but at age 19 Menuhin retired for 18 months to study formal violin technique. During World War II he performed over 500 concerts for Allied troops, frequently in combat zones; after the war he and composer-pianist Benjamin Britten played for survivors of Nazi concentration camps. A Jew, he became controversial for performing with Wilhelm Furtwängler, who had conducted in Germany during the war, and the Berlin Philharmonic. Menuhin later played benefits for both Israeli and Arab causes and was president of UNESCO's International Music Council; a supporter of world peace and environmental causes, he became almost as noted for his humanitarian efforts as for his music. As an advocate of new music, he was noted for commissioning and introducing works by Bela Bartok (Sonata for Solo Violin), William Walton, and others into the modern repertoire. In later years he enjoyed a second career as conductor, and in 1996 in New York City he conducted a concert of 14 works created in his honour by Lukas Foss, John Tavener, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and others. He also performed Indian classical music with Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Ali Akbar Khan (sarod) and jazz with violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Menuhin directed annual music festivals in Gstaad, Switz. (from 1957), Bath, Eng. (1959–68), and Windsor, Eng. (1969–72). In 1963 he opened the Yehudi Menuhin School for musically gifted children at Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, Eng., where he held frequent master classes. His writings include violin studies and the autobiography Unfinished Journey (1977). Menuhin was an American citizen and, from 1959, a resident of London. Twenty years after receiving (1965) an honorary knighthood, he also became a British citizen, and in 1993 he was created a life peer.

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