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Felix Galimir (May 20, 1910,Vienna – November 10, 1999,New York) was anAustrian-born Americanviolinist andmusic teacher.
Born in aSephardic Jewish family Vienna; his first language wasLadino.[1] He studied withAdolf Bak andSimon Pullman at theVienna Conservatory from the age of twelve and graduated in 1928. With his three sisters he founded the Galimir Quartet in 1927 to commemorate the centenary of thedeath ofLudwig van Beethoven. During the early 1930s Galimir studied withCarl Flesch inBerlin. In 1936, the Galimir Quartet recorded the Lyric Suite ofAlban Berg and the String Quartet ofMaurice Ravel under the supervision of the composers, who were present during the rehearsals and recording sessions.[1]
In 1936, he joined theVienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He was harassed because of his Jewish ethnicity – at one performance, writes Allan Kozinn, "just as the lights went down, the principal clarinetist called out, in a voice audible throughout the theater, 'Galimir – have you eaten your matzos today?'"[1] The next season, the orchestra expelled him because he was Jewish. He thenemigrated toPalestine to join the newly founded Palestine Symphony Orchestra.[citation needed]
"My mother wasAustrian, but as my father wasRomanian, we were considered enemy aliens and lived in fear of internment", he said of his family's plight inWorld War I.[2]
In 1938, Galimir moved toNew York,[1] where he founded another quartet and served as member of theNBC Symphony Orchestra from 1939 to 1956.(later, when the NBC ensemble was disbanded, Galimir was concertmaster of the Symphony of the Air.) In the 1950s he began acquiring a reputation as a music teacher and began teaching at The City College of New York and later atThe Juilliard School in New York in 1962 and from 1972 at theCurtis Institute of Music inPhiladelphia. In 1976 he began teaching atMannes College of Music in New York.[1]
In 1952, after the death ofAdolf Busch, pianistRudolf Serkin asked Galimir to join the faculty of theMarlboro Music Festival, where he was in residence every year from 1954 until his death in 1999.[citation needed]
Galimir died on November 10, 1999, aged 89, ofnatural causes and has since been honoured with memorial concerts and competitions in his name.[3]
