Music History Monday: One of the Really Good Guys

We mark the birth on April 22, 1916 – 108 years ago today – of one of the really good guys of twentieth century music: the American-British violinist, conductor, and teacher Yehudi Menuhin.

A reminder: because of my trip to Vienna, I am still – for this week – posting abbreviated Music History Monday and Dr. Bob Prescribes posts.  I can assure you that this hurts me more than it does you; not presently having the time and wherewithal to expand (as is my chronic wont) on Maestro Menuhin is causing me no small bit of spiritual and emotional damage.

I will cope, but poorly.

Yehudi Mnuchin was born into a family of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants in New York City on April 22, 1916. In 1918, the family moved to San Francisco and in the following year, 1919, the Mnuchins became American citizens and changed their name to Menuhin.

It was in San Francisco (and here in Oakland, where at the age of seven he made his professional debut at the Oakland Auditorium, on February 29, 1924) that Menuhin grew up as a spectacular child prodigy violinist.  He made his New York debut at the age of nine on March 17, 1926, and his first solo recordings in 1928, at the tender age of twelve.…

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