Josef Gingold (Russian: Иосиф Гингольд; October 28 [O.S. October 15] 1909 – January 11, 1995) was a Belarusian-Jewish-born classical violinist and teacher, who lived most of his life in the United States. At the time of his death he was considered one of the most influential violin masters in the United States with many successful students.

Biography

Gingold was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russian Empire (now Brest, Belarus), and emigrated in 1920 to the United States where he studied violin with Vladimir Graffman in New York City. He then moved to Belgium for several years to study with master violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. He gave the first performance of Ysaÿe's 3rd Sonata for Solo Violin. In 1937, Gingold won a spot in the NBC Symphony Orchestra, with Arturo Toscanini as its conductor; he then served as the concertmaster (and occasional soloist) of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and later was the Cleveland Orchestra's concertmaster under conductor George Szell.

Gingold edited numerous violin technique books and orchestral excerpt collections. He taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for more than thirty years, until his death in 1995. His pupils included Anne Shih, Joshua Bell, Arnold Steinhardt, Shony Alex Braun, Andrés Cárdenes, Corey Cerovsek, Cyrus Forough, Miriam Fried, Endre Granat, Brian Hanly, Ulf Hoelscher, Hu Nai-yuan, Jacques Israelievitch, Ivar Bremer Hauge, Leonidas Kavakos, Chin Kim, Ronald Lantz, Jaime Laredo, William Preucil, Joseph Silverstein, and Gwen Thompson, Xiao-mei Pelletier (Associate-Principal Violin, Dallas Symphony Orchestra).

Gingold was a founder of the quadrennial Indianapolis Violin Competition. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.

A detailed literary portrait of Josef Gingold is included in the book, Quintet, Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment, by David Blum (Cornell University Press, 1999). It originally appeared as an article in the 4 February 1991 issue of The New Yorker.

Gingold died in Bloomington, Indiana in 1995.

Honors and awards

Gingold's recording of Fritz Kreisler's works was nominated for a Grammy Award. Some of the numerous honors he received during his lifetime include the American String Teachers Association Teacher of the Year; the Fredrick Bachman Lieber Award for Distinguished Teaching at Indiana University; the Chamber Music America National Service Award; Baylor University's Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers; and the American Symphony Orchestra League's Golden Baton Award.