Life
Born in Haifa, Palestine Mandate, to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Gitlis studied violin at an early age. When violinist Bronisław Huberman first heard him play, he sent him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where Gitlis won a first prize, aged 13. His teachers include Carl Flesch, George Enescu, and Jacques Thibaud. In 1951, Gitlis made his debut in Paris.
His first recording, Concerto à la mémoire d'un ange by Alban Berg, won the Grand Prix du Disque in France.
In 1968 he participated in John Lennon's The Dirty Mac project on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus program.
In 1971 Bruno Maderna wrote Piece for Ivry for him. In 1975 he played a dramatic role as Hypnotist in Francois Truffaut's film "The Story of Adele H".
In 1990 Gitlis was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. His stated aim is the "support of education and culture of peace and tolerance".
Ivry Gitlis is a commentator (along with Itzhak Perlman) all the way through the DVD "The Art of Violin" (2000) which showcases performances and gives biographical details of many of the great violinists of the 20th Century.
Since the end of the sixties, Gitlis has resided in Paris, France.
At various stages in his career, he played on a 1699 Rogeri (which he sold to famed violin author Sidney Bowden), the 1737 "Chant du Cygne" Stradivarius, and the "Ysaye" Guarnerius del Gesu. Ivry currently owns the "Sancy" Stradivarius of 1713.
Read more about this topic: Ivry Gitlis
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Half of my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
The aspiration of my youth, to build
Some tower of song with lofty parapet.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“There are three times in a man’s life when he has the right to yell at the moon—when he marries; when his children come; and when he finishes a job he had to be crazy to start.”
—Borden Chase [Frank Fowler] (1900–1971)
“For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.”
—Jacques Attali (b. 1943)