ZUKOFSKY, PAUL

ZUKOFSKY, PAUL (1943– ), U.S. violinist, conductor, and teacher. Zukofsky was born in Brooklyn. His father was the poet and writer louis zukofsky . He began playing at the age of four. At seven he studied with Galamian, at ten he appeared with the New Haven SO, making his Carnegie Hall debut at 13. Entering the Juilliard School of Music at 16, he earned his B.M. and M.S. in 1964. A virtuoso of great technical skill, he was especially noted for his championship of contemporary works. His repertoire includes works by Ives, Cage, glass , and first performances of concertos by Sessions, Wuorinen, Iain Hamilton as well as works by babbitt , Carter and crumb . Zukofsky's extensive list of recordings includes more than 60 first releases, among them the Bach solo sonatas and partitas and Penderecki's Capriccio and an anthology of American violin music written between 1940 and 1970. Zukofsky has edited works for violin by Cage and Steuermann, and written several articles on Cage (1982, 1988, 1993), Brahms (1997), Beethoven (2000), schoenberg (1992, 2001), and others as well as a book on 20th-century violin techniques: All-Interval Scale Book (1977). Zukosky taught at the Buffalo Center, the New England Conservatory in Boston, and the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. In 1969 he joined the faculty of SUNY, Stony Brook. He held a Guggenheim fellowship (1983–4) and was appointed conductor of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at the Juilliard School, where he also taught violin. Zukofsky was director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute (1989–1995) in Los Angeles and editor of the Institute's journal. He serves as program coordinator of the American Composers Series at the Kennedy Center. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grove Music Online; Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1997). (Max Loppert / Naama Ramot (2nd ed.)