Jacques Israelievitch

Canadian violinist Jacques Israelievitch was born at Cannes in France on 6 May 1948. At eleven, he was the youngest graduate ever at Le Mans Conservatory. He continued his studies with René Benedetti and Henryk Szeryng at the Conservatoire de Paris and with Josef Gingold, Menahem Pressler, William Primrose and János Starker at Indiana University.

His career involved working as a soloist, a chamber musician (with the likes of Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Carlo Maria Giulini, Yo-Yo Ma and Jukka-Pekka Saraste) and concertmaster. From 1972 he worked for Solti as assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony. Later he was concertmaster of the St Louis Symphony and then, from 1998 until 2008, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He recorded music by Beethoven, R Murray Schafer, Grieg, Mozart and Rodolphe Kreutzer's 42 Etudes.

As the Israelievitch Duo with his percussionist son Michael, he commissioned and performed music by Murray Adaskin, Michael Colgrass and Srul Irving Glick.

Israelevitch died from cancer in Toronto on 5 September 2015, aged sixty-seven.