David Sarser (January 31, 1921 – June 6, 2013)
Nolan & Taylor-Howe Funeral Home, Northport, NY was an American musician, audio engineer and electronics designer. Born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

, he played

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

with the

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony performed weekly radio concert broadcasts with Tosc ...

in the 1950s under

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

and worked with

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...

in the design of the first 8 track recording deck (built for Mr. Paul by

Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

for his home studio.) He stopped playing the violin after his Stradivarius was stolen in 1962.1735 Violin "Lamoureux-Zimbalist"
Archivio della Liuteria Cremonese The stolen (formerly his) instrument, ''Lamoureux'' (1735), has been exhibited in Japan, and it is shown "unassembled" in "Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari: Treatises on the Life and Work of the Patriarch of Violinmakers" (Goodkind, 1972). It is widely believed to still reside in Japan. Police believe the instrument was already on a plane to Tokyo by the time it was discovered to be missing from the RCA studio. Sarser died on June 6, 2013 in Northport, New York.

References

American classical violinists Male classical violinists American male violinists 1921 births 2013 deaths 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American violinists {{US-musician-stub