Today is Violinist Pinchas Zukerman's 76th Birthday!

Zukerman is widely regarded as one the greatest instrumentalists of the 20th and 21st centuries

Israeli-American violinist, violist, and conductor Pinchas Zukerman was born on this day in 1948.

Zukerman's earliest studies were at the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music), learning recorder, clarinet, and violin. Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals took an interest in Zukerman's violin talent during a visit to Israel in 1962, which resulted in a move to the United States that very year to study at the Juilliard School with Stern and Ivan Galamian.

Zukerman made his New York City debut in 1963. In 1967, he shared the Leventritt Prize with the Korean violinist Kyung-wha Chung. His 1969 debut recordings of the concerti by Tchaikovsky (under the direction of Antal Dorati, with the London Symphony Orchestra) and Mendelssohn (with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic) launched a successful recording career of over 110 releases.

Zukerman is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and is the head and founder of the Zukerman Performance Program. His former students include Koh Gabriel Kameda, Julian Rachlin, and Guy Braunstein.

He currently performs on the 1742 "Dushkin" Guaneri Del Gesu.

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN | VALERY GERGIEV & THE MARIINSKY THEATRE ORCHESTRA | TCHAIKOVSKY | SÉRÉNADE MÉLANCOLIQUE | 2020