The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 2004
". . . [Malan] handles his subject with the protective affection of a family member."


Bookviews.com, October 2004
". . . This book is a masterful biography and will please anyone who loves music and music makers."


Choice, January 2005
". . . engaging and affectionate . . . [a] solid addition of the music literature."


Symphony Magazine, November/December 2004
". . . a full-scale biography . . . [A] highly readable portrait."


Book Description
Violinist and educator Efrem Zimbalist (1890-1985) led a legendary life in music in an age of violin legends. Of the dazzling stars to emerge from the Russian School at the beginning of the 20th century, Zimbalist earned a special place. David Oistrakh compared him to Heifetz: "While Heifetz conquered by sheer brilliance, Zimbalist captivated people by appealing to profound mysteries of heart and soul." Zimbalist was also one of the century's great teachers, for 40 years devoting himself to the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, serving as its director from 1941 to 1968. His was a remarkable journey, fortunately recounted in hundreds of hours of taped interviews with author and Curtis Institute student Roy Malan, longtime concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Malan then waited nearly a decade after Zimbalist's death before seeking publication, so that the story could be told in its entirety. This definitive biography of the world's first globe-trotting virtuoso also includes a discography and a list of Zimbalist's students.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Violinist and educator Efrem Zimbalist (1890-1985) led a legendary life in music in an age of violin legends. Among the dazzling stars to emerge from the Russian School at the beginning of the twentieth century, Zimbalist earned a special place. One of the world's greatest violin virtuosos, he is also regarded as one of the century's great teachers, devoting forty years to the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and serving as its director from 1941-1968." His journey, from his early music roots as a young child in the Ukraine, where he began his professional career at the age of nine, to love at first sight and marriage to the beautiful and celebrated soprano Alma Gluck, to author Roy Malan's final visit with him shortly before his death, is recorded in hundreds of hours of taped interviews and Zimbalists's student at the Curtis Institute. The result is this authentic portrait, taken from Zimbalist's own words, which gives readers a close-up look at a golden era in music through the eyes of one of its most brilliant protagonists.

SYNOPSIS