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- Joshua Bell (1967 – ) From child prodigy to one of the most outstanding virtuosos of our time. Everything about him, from performances to his iconic mass of hair, has superstar quality.
- Nicola Benedetti (1987 – ) She’s a tireless advocate for the instrument and for music education in general, and one of the finest violinists this country has ever produced.
- George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (1778 – 1860) A British virtuoso, of African descent. His playing impressed Beethoven so much that he was the original dedicatee of his ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, a piece that was considered unplayable by many at the time.
- Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) We all love violin sonatas and concertos, right? Well, we have Arcangelo to thank. Trained in Bologna and Rome, this string player rose to astronomical levels of musical profile and general celebrity.
- Arcangelo Corelli
- Niccolò Paganini
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Yehudi Menuhin
- Stéphane Grappelli
- Jascha Heifetz
- Fritz Kreisler
- Isaac Stern
- Hilary Hahn
- Itzhak Perlman
One of the founding figures in the violin music we hear today is Arcangelo Corelli, and many of the classical artists that have influenced today’s violinists were inspired by Corelli and his work. In his time, Corelli performed all around Europe and was favored by many royal courts for his talent. Among the Italian composer’s popular works is the c...
Alive from 1782 to 1840, Niccolo Paganini, a popular Italian violin virtuoso, violist, and composer continues to have his music played and studied by violinists to this day. As most renowned musicians do, he started young on the violin and earned famous tutorage around Italy. It took him a few years, but he eventually toured all of Europe and gaine...
Another pillar of the violin world, Antonio Vivaldi, was an Italian Baroque composerand violinist whose music is played regularly to this day. His compositions are practiced and taught as classics in most musical teachings. Vivaldi composed most of his violin works for the orphanage he worked as a musical director. Much of his fame and renown disap...
Born in America, Yehudi Menuhinbegan violin at age four, then appeared on the world stage by age 12, shocking audiences with his talent. This turned into a lifelong career of performing worldwide, especially in Britain, and recording many songs with other famous musicians, like Stéphane Grappell, who we’ll look at next. Menuhin took pride in teachi...
You don’t have to be a classical violinist to be one of the greats. Our next famous violinist, Stéphane Grappelli,was a well-known and loved gypsy jazz violinist. Grappelli’s early life was full of changes, and his childhood extended through World War I. He only began to learn the violin at age 12. Immersed in music and living through both World Wa...
Lithuanian Jascha Heifetz had an earlier start than most when it came to the violin with his father, a violinist, putting him through “tests” to see how he reacted to the music. By age two, Heifetz had a violin in his hand, and by the age of seven, he was publicly performing and beginning to earn money from his violin abilities. Already popular in ...
Born in Austria, Fritz Kreislerstudied music there as a child and performed in Rome at the age of twelve before traveling to New York in his younger years to complete it. Kreisler’s unique style shone over various styles, including his violin solos and compositions. Two notable ones are “Liebesfreud” and “Liebesleid.” He also possessed multiple rar...
Born in Poland, Isaac Stern and his family moved to San Francisco when he was still a baby. He took violin lessons in early childhood through his teenage years and debuted at fifteen. Stern performed for US troops during WWII since he wasn’t eligible for the draft. Then in the 1960s, he was one of the loud voices of protest against the demolition o...
An American child prodigy, Hilary Hahnbegan her violin career at age four, and by the age of ten, she was attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. At age eleven, she played in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which set her up for a stellar career, immersed in classical music as both a solo violinist and within an orchestra. Hahn ha...
Yet another prodigy, Itzhak Perlman, came to the US from Tel Aviv when he was 13 to study at the Juilliard School in New York City. He went on to make a great career out of his talent. Perlman has an international concert record and has met and performed for more famous events and people than most musicians. This includes the inauguration of Barack...
- 37 min
- Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) After reading the title of this article, Paganini is probably the first name that came to your mind. This Italian violinist and composer set Europe on fire with his talent and dramatic personality.
- Karol Lipinski (1790-1861) Raised in Poland by a musical father, Lipinski also had the benefit of some generous patrons, and became proficient at both violin and cello.
- Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) Non-violinists, even if they are music lovers, rarely know the name of Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. However, he moved in very famous musical circles (Brahms was one of his closest friends) and he was crucial to the reviving and developing some of the greatest violin repertoire.
- Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) His music is timeless, but the story of Polish native Henryk Wieniawski is brief and tragic. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at only eight years old.
- Jeremy Nicholas
- 19 min
- Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), Russian-American. For many people, Heifetz was not only the greatest violinist of the twentieth century but of all time. He set new standards of excellence that later generations still attempt to emulate.
- Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), Austrian-American. No violinist of the first half of the twentieth century was more loved than Kreisler. The warmth of his personality, his genial disposition and generosity as a human being somehow finds its way into his music making.
- Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), Italian. No one in the nineteenth century had a greater influence on the development of violin technique than Paganini.
- David Oistrakh (1908-1974), Russian. Oistrakh was one of a number of great musicians born in Odessa (then Russia, now Ukraine). Though highly regarded in the USSR, due to Stalin’s regime he was little known in the West until after the Second World War (he was not allowed to tour the United States till 1955).
- David Oistrakh. Devil`s Trills, Sonata in G Minor. Easily considered the preeminent violinist of the 20th century, David Oistrakh was a Soviet violinist and conductor who had numerous violin works dedicated to him.
- Jascha Heifetz. Chaconne in G Minor. Upon hearing Jascha Heifetz play the violin, Fritz Kreisler—another prominent violinist—stated that the rest of them should just take their fiddles and break them over their knees.
- Yehudi Menuhin. Yehudi Menuhin plays Mendelssohn violin concerto. Yehudi Menuhin had a long performing career, most of which was spent in Britain. He’s widely regarded as one of the best violinists of the 20th century and was noted for playing the Soil Stradivarius.
- Niccolò Paganini. [1802] 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 (No. 24 in A Minor) Niccolò Paganini was a virtuoso violinist and one of the most celebrated violinists of his era toward the end of the 1700s.
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) Pablo de Sarasate. Pablo de Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, and started studying at the Paris Conservatoire at age 12. In 1859, he began a world tour that lasted almost 30 years. Both a violinist and composer, he performed opera fantasies that he arranged for himself.
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We asked 100 leading violinists to nominate their favourite peers, and came up with this list of the greatest violinists ever
