Jascha Heifetz Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Jascha Heifetz (English pronunciation: /ˈhaɪfɪts/, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a violinist, born in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Heifetz was born into a Litvak family in Vilnius, Lithuania, then occupied by the Russian Empire. His father, Reuven Heifetz, son of Elie, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. Jascha took up the violin when he was three years old and his father was his first teacher.... MORE

Jascha Heifetz (English pronunciation: /ˈhaɪfɪts/, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a violinist, born in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Heifetz was born into a Litvak family in Vilnius, Lithuania, then occupied by the Russian Empire. His father, Reuven Heifetz, son of Elie, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. Jascha took up the violin when he was three years old and his father was his first teacher. At five he started lessons with Ilya D. Malkin, a former pupil of Leopold Auer. He was a child prodigy, making his public debut at seven, in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) playing the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer himself. He played in Germany and Scandinavia, and met Fritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin private house together with other noted violinists in attendance. Kreisler, after accompanying the 12-year-old Heifetz at the piano in a performance of the Mendelssohn concerto, said to all LESS