Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 - September 22, 2001) is widely considered one of the finest violin virtuosi of the twentieth century.
Born in Kremenetz, Ukraine, his family moved to San Francisco when he was ten months old. He received his first music lessons from his mother before enrolling at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1928. There he studied the violin with Nahum Blinder. At his public début on February 18, 1936 he played Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony orchestra, conducted by Pierre Monteux.
In 1979, the Chinese government invited Stern to tour and teach in their country. The film-maker Murray Lerner accompanied him and made the film From Mao to Mozart, winning the 1980 Oscar for Best Documentary.
Stern became famous both for his great recordings and for championing younger players. Among his discoveries were the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. He also played a major role in saving New York City's Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1960 and its main auditorium is now named after him.
Amongst many other recordings, Stern recorded concertos by Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi and modern works by Samuel Barber, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. He also dubbed actors' violin-playing in several films, for example Fiddler on the Roof.
He married ballerina Nora Kaye in November 1948, but their marriage ended in divorce sometime before August 1959.
