Jascha Brodsky
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Jascha Brodsky (June 6, 1907 – March 3, 1997) was a
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n-
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
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 ...
ist and teacher. Born in
Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Kharkov Governorate The Kharkov Governorate ( pre-reform Russian: , tr. ''Khárkovskaya gubérniya'', IPA: xarʲkəfskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə ) was a governorate of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. Fro ...
of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(in present-day
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
), he began his violin studies with his violinist father at the age of six. He later studied at the conservatory in
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
, and by 1926, was performing successfully all over the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. That same year, he went to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to study with
Lucien Capet Lucien Louis Capet (8 January 1873 – 18 December 1928) was a French violinist, pedagogue and composer. Career Capet came from the Paris proletariat. By the age of fifteen, he had to maintain himself by playing in bistros and cafes. He studied ...
. There he also played for
Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...
( Violin Concerto No. 1) and performed with pianist
Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of al ...
and violinists
Nathan Milstein Nathan Mironovich Milstein ( – December 21, 1992) was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist. Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and ...
and Mischa Elman. Soon thereafter, he moved again, to
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
to study with the legendary
Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysa ...
. In 1930 he moved to America to study with
Efrem Zimbalist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. ( – February 22, 1985) was a concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Early life Efrem Zimbalist Sr. was born on April 9, 1888, O. S., equivalent to April 21, 1889, in the Greg ...
at the Curtis Institute of Music. Alongside his classmates
Orlando Cole Orlando Cole (August 16, 1908 – January 25, 2010) was an American cello teacher who taught two generations of soloists, chamber musicians, and first cellists in a dozen leading orchestras, including Lynn Harrell, Jonah Kim, Ronald Leonard, ...
, Max Aronoff, and Benjamin Sharlip, Brodsky formed in 1932 an ensemble which would later be called the Curtis String Quartet and served as the first violinist of the quartet until the group disbanded in 1981 after the death of the quartet's violist, Max Aronoff. Brodsky joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute in 1932 and remained there until just after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
when, with the rest of the Curtis String Quartet, he resigned over disagreements with certain of the school's policies to help found the New School of Music. After re-joining the faculty in the early 1950s, he remained for nearly fifty years, later being appointed to the Efrem Zimbalist Chair of Violin Studies, which position he held until his death in 1997. A respected pedagogue, his students are dispersed widely among the finest musical institutions in the world. Numbered among his students are
Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. She has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several ...
,
Joseph de Pasquale Joseph de Pasquale (October 14, 1919 – June 22, 2015) was an American violist. Career Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Joseph de Pasquale was a student of Louis Bailly, Max Aronoff and William Primrose at the Curtis Institute of Music. ...
,
Leila Josefowicz Leila Bronia Josefowicz ( ; born October 20, 1977) is an American-Canadian classical violinist. Biography Josefowicz was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. When she was a young child her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where she sta ...
, Choong-Jin Chang,
Juliette Kang Juliette Kang (born September 6, 1975) is a Canadian violinist. In 1994, she earned the gold medal at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Kang went on to have an international solo career. She joined the Philadelphia Orchestra ...
, Judith Ingolfsson, Herbert Greenberg,
Joey Corpus Joey Corpus (born Jorge Corpus; 19 March 1957 – 9 December 2017) was a Filipino-American violinist and violin teacher. Born in Manila, Corpus was the oldest sibling in a family of six children. His father Hector Corpus was an amateur jazz music ...
, Chin Kim, and Shira Katsman. With Aronoff, Brodsky founded the New School of Music in
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when they decided that there was a present need to train musicians specifically for a career in chamber music or in
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
. In 1986, The New School of Music was merged into
Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...
's
Boyer College of Music and Dance Boyer () is a French surname. In rarer cases, it can be a corruption or deliberate alteration of other names. Origins and statistics Boyer is found traditionally along the Mediterranean (Provence, Languedoc), the Rhône valley, Auvergne, Limou ...
, where Brodsky was appointed Professor Emeritus. He taught at the school until his retirement in 1996. He died in Ocala, Florida in 1997. In a 2019 Philadelphia Inquirer investigation, Lara St. John and four other unnamed women accused Brodsky of sexually assaulting them when they were his students. They alleged that after reporting his advances to the Curtis administration, they were mocked and their allegations were ignored. Curtis had hired law firm Morgan Lewis in 2013 to investigate St. John's allegations, but the firm interviewed only two people and concluded no further investigation was needed. In November 2019, Curtis hired the firm Cozen O'Connor to conduct another independent investigation into St. John's accusations, as well as other potential incidents of sexual assault and abuse, promising to make the full report available to the public. On September 22, 2020, Curtis released the report, in which the attorneys who prepared it—Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez, former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutors—concluded that Brodsky had in fact sexually abused and raped St. John during the 1985–86 school year, during which time she was 14 and 15 years old. Smith and Gomez further concluded that Curtis had fallen "short in its institutional response" at several points when St. John informed the school of what Brodsky had done. The school issued an apology, and committed to new policies and actions to prevent future sexual abuse and make reporting easier for survivors.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodsky, Jascha 1907 births 1997 deaths Musicians from Kharkiv People from Kharkov Governorate Ukrainian Jews Soviet emigrants to the United States American male violinists Ukrainian violinists Violin pedagogues Tbilisi State Conservatoire alumni Temple University faculty Curtis Institute of Music alumni Curtis Institute of Music faculty 20th-century classical violinists Jewish classical violinists 20th-century American male musicians Male classical violinists 20th-century American violinists