Stuart Canin was born in New York City, where he studied violin with the famed pedagogue Ivan Galamian. In 1959, he achieved international attention by surpassing 25 violinists to capture First Prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. As concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1980, Mr. Canin was frequently featured as soloist in concerts including in Moscow, Leningrad, Berlin, and Tokyo.
He has served as professor of violin at prestigious conservatories in this country and abroad, among them the Oberlin Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Freiberg, Germany. He has also served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico, and the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. For many years Mr. Canin was a Chamber Music Artist at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado, as well as the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and Charleston, South Carolina.
Mr. Canin had the signal honor of giving the first performance on the Jascha Heifetz Guarnerius violin following Heifetz’s death in 1987. Performed at the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor, the concert received the highest critical acclaim. For seven years, Mr. Canin served as music director and concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless orchestra that he helped found. In 2001, Maestro Nagano appointed him concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera, a position he still holds.
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