Arnold Steinhardt

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Arnold Steinhardt (born 1937 in Los Angeles, California), is an American violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Steinhardt made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 14. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Ivan Galamian and later in Switzerland with Joseph Szigeti. In 1958 he won the Leventritt International Violin competition. After winning Leventritt, George Szell invited him to take second chair in the Cleveland Orchestra's first violin section (next to concertmaster Josef Gingold). He was later appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute. He has also performed extensively as a soloist.

He lives in New York City, and is the author of two books; Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony, an account of his life in the Guarneri String Quartet, and Violin Dreams, an autobiography about his life and experiences as a violinist.

[edit] Works

Steinhardt, Arnold, Violin Dreams, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, ISBN 978-0618368921
Steinhardt, Arnold, Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999, ISBN 0374236704