The Catholic University of America
Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999)

In the late 1980s I had the opportunity to perform* for Yehudi Menuhin here in the Washington, DC area. His way of being and his presence were inspiring. I felt a deep affinity for him from the moment I met him. In conversation with him I was struck by how free he was from his own personal history as one of the great violinists of the 20th Century. He seemed paradoxically youthful and wise.

Yehudi Menuhin led an extraordinary life. He was a celebrated child prodigy. Josef Gingold told me how overwhelmed he felt after hearing a New York recital played by the 11 year old Menuhin (in the 1920's). He said the playing was so magnificent that all the top violinists in New York wanted to burn their instruments immediately afterwards! When Albert Einstein heard the boy Menuhin perform around this time, he exclaimed "now I know there is a God in heaven".

Menuhin expanded his commitment far beyond that of a typical violin virtuoso. His devotion to humanity, in so many expressions and projects, was phenomenal. Here is an inspiring quote from him:

"Each human being has the eternal duty of turning what is hard and brutal into
a tender and subtle offering, what is crude into an object of refinement, what
is ugly into a thing of beauty, confrontation into collaboration, ignorance into
knowledge, hereby rediscovering the child's dream of a creative reality
incessantly renewed by death, the servant of life, and by life the servant of love"

-- Yehudi Menuhin

More information about his projects is available at:
Menuhin Foundation

I was grateful to receive this letter of introduction from him in 1991:

* The performance was to celebrate publication of a biography of the first great American violinist, entitled Maud Powell, Legendary American Violinist by Karen Shaffer. American born Maud Powell, a student of Joachim and Schradieck, gave the American premieres of concertos by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Bruch, and Dvorak. She tirelessly performed all across America to critical acclaim in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, including the great arts centers as well as in the smallest towns of the wild west. Her wonderful virtuosity is documented in numerous recordings now available on CDs. For more information about her life go to:
Maud Powell Foundation

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