Ivan Galamian

Ivan Alexander Galamian (Իվան Ղալամեան; February 5 1903 – April 14, 1981) was an Armenian-American violin teacher of the twentieth century who was the violin teacher of many seminal violin players including Itzhak Perlman.

Galamian was born in Tabriz, Iran to an Armenian family.

Soon after his birth, the family immigrated to Moscow, Russia.

He studied with Konstantin Mostras (a student of Leopold Auer) at the School of the Philharmonic Society from 1916 to 1922.

He was jailed at age fifteen by the Bolshevik government.

The opera manager at the Bolshoi Theatre rescued Galamian; the manager argued that Galamian was a necessary part of the opera orchestra, and subsequently the government released him.

Soon thereafter he moved to Paris and studied under Lucien Capet in 1922 and 1923.

In 1924 he debuted in Paris.

Due to a combination of nerves, health, and a fondness for teaching, Galamian eventually gave up the stage in order to teach full-time.

He became a faculty member at the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff where he taught from 1925 to 1929.

His earliest pupils in Paris include Vida Reynolds, the first woman in Philadelphia Orchestra's first-violin section, and Paul Makanowitzky.

In 1937 Galamian moved permanently to the United States.

In 1941 he married Judith Johnson in New York City.

He taught violin at the Curtis Institute of Music beginning in 1944, and became the head of the violin department at the Juilliard School in 1946.

In 1944 he founded the Meadowmount School of Music, a summer program in Westport, New York.

The school has remained operational and has trained thousands of world-class musicians.

Galamian taught concurrently at Curtis, Juilliard, and Meadowmount schools.

He did not retire and maintained an active full-time work schedule.

He wrote two violin method books, Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching (1962) and Contemporary Violin Technique (1962).

Galamian incorporated aspects of both the Russian and French schools of violin technique in his approach.

He died at the age of 78 in 1981 in New York City.

His wife subsequently took on an active role in managing the Meadowmount School.

Galamian's most notable teaching assistants — later distinguished teachers in their own right — were Margaret Pardee, Dorothy DeLay, Sally Thomas, Pauline Scott, Robert Lipsett, Lewis Kaplan, David Cerone, and Elaine Richey.

Galamian held honorary degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin College, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

He was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, London.

The book principles of violin playing and teaching is translated to several languages in the world.

Chinese version is done by Professor Peter Shi-Xiang Zhang, Spanish by Renato Zanettovich, Persian by Dr. Mohsen Kazemian.