Erick Friedman

Erick Friedman started playing the violin at age 6, was a student at Juilliard by age 10, and was the only violinist to be a private student of both Nathan Milstein and Jascha Heifetz. The latter took him into his master classes at the University of Southern California in 1959 and recorded the Bach Double Concerto with him in 1961. Unfortunately the mark of Heifetz was hard to shake, and Friedman was often compared to the great master. Nonetheless, Friedman spent the next 25 years as a concert artist and teacher, appearing with dozens of symphony orchestras throughout the world, and holding the positions of artist-in-residence at Southern Methodist and the Elman chair at the Manhattan School of Music. An automobile accident in the late 1980s injured his left hand and arm and made performing at the virtuosic level impossible. Friedman took a professorship at Yale University, where he remained for the remainder of his life, holding several master classes. During this time he was also a conductor, the director of a music festival, and a judge at many competitions. He won a Grammy award in 1996 for his participation in the release of a set of all of Heifetz's recordings. Erick Friedman died of cancer on March 30, 2004.