Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99) was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is one of the most celebrated violinists of the twentieth century.
Born in New York, Menuhin was a child prodigy—he appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at age seven. In 1932, he recorded Edward Elgar’s violin concerto, conducted by the composer, and subsequently appeared all over the world. After 18 months’ retirement for study, he continued his career as a virtuoso, gaining an international reputation. In 1942, Bela Bartók wrote his solo violin sonata for Menuhin.
During World War II, Menuhin gave concerts to the troops, and, after the war, settled in England, beginning to conduct in 1957. In the same year, he set up the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in the Swiss alpine town of Gstaad. In 1963, he founded the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music for musically talented children.
Noted also for raising the profile of Indian music and yoga in the West, Menuhin was a disciple of the influential yogi B. K. S. Iyengar, who was mostly unknown outside India. Due to Menuhin’s support, Iyengar became one of the first prominent yoga masters teaching in the West.
Menuhin was involved with numerous causes promoting environmental issues and social justice, in addition to being a prolific writer. He published his autobiographies Unfinished Journey (1977) and Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later (1997.) His publications also include the collection of essays Theme and Variations (1972,) works for musical instruction Violin: Six Lessons (1972) and Violin and Viola (1976 Stevens,) and The Music of Man (1979.)
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What guides us is children’s response, their joy in learning to dance, to sing, to live together. It should be a guide to the whole world.
—Yehudi Menuhin
Topics: Children
Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.
—Yehudi Menuhin
Topics: Order
The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. It is the currency of human exchanges, which enables the sharing of states of the soul and conscience, and the discovery of new fields of experience.
—Yehudi Menuhin
Topics: Art
We embark unhesitatingly on the path, in a direction that is absolutely right and urgent, supported by everyone, in the knowledge that this path is but a learning process.
—Yehudi Menuhin
Topics: Learning
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