HEIFETZ, JASCHA

HEIFETZ, JASCHA (1901–1987), U.S. violinist. Born in Vilna, Lithuania, Heifetz started playing at the age of three under his father's tuition, and later studied at the Vilna music school. At seven he played the Mendelssohn violin concerto in public and at 10 entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his teacher was leopold auer . In 1912 he played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikisch. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the family decided to emigrate and reached America via Siberia and Japan. Heifetz ultimately made his home in Beverly Hills, California. His playing early reached perfection, never relied on excessive display, and was marked by aristocratic restraint. It set a new style in violin mastery. He was acclaimed in the United States, toured abroad with triumphant success, and was received with enthusiasm in Russia in 1934. He appeared in Ereẓ Israel in 1925, and donated his fees for the promotion of music in Tel Aviv. He first played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1950, and again in 1953, when his inclusion of a work by Richard Strauss (whose works were not played publicly in Israel because of his association with Nazism) in his programs provoked a bodily attack on him by an extremist youth, in which Heifetz was slightly injured. In later years he lived in semi-retirement. He was also an accomplished pianist, and made many transcriptions for violin and piano. Composers dedicated violin concertos to him, among them Sir William Walton, erich korngold , louis gruenberg , joseph achron , and mario castelnuovo-tedesco . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Holde, Jews in Music (1959), index. (Uri (Erich) Toeplitz)