Isaac Stern

Violinist Isaac Stern became a hugely influential figure within American classical music and is remembered for having championed the careers of many young, up-and-coming artists. His various protégés include cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Jian Wang and violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

Stern was a Polish immigrant whose parents moved to the US in 1921 when he was four-years-old. Seven years later he was enrolled into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied until eventually leaving to be mentored by Louis Persinger. He eventually returned to the conservatory where he continued his studies under the guidance of Russian-American violinist Naoum Blinder, a tutor who in later years Stern attributed as having been the most important influence in his career. Stern went on to become an internationally renowned concert violinist with a recording legacy of more than 50 albums. He died from heart failure in a Manhattan hospital in 2001 at the age of 81.