Stuart Canin
Guest Artist ~ Violin
Biography
Stuart Canin, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1980, was born in New York City, where he studied violin with the famed pedagogue Ivan Galamian. He has also served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.
In 1959, he surpassed 25 other violinists to capture First Prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. A year later he was honored by his native city with its highest cultural award, the Handel Medal, in recognition of his musical achievements.
As concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, Mr. Canin was featured as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions, including concerts in Moscow, Leningrad, Berlin and Tokyo. For many years he 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. 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.
Mr. Canin had the signal honor of giving the first performance on the Jascha Heifetz Guarnerius violin following Heifetz’ death in 1987. Given 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. Maestro Nagano in 2001 appointed him concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera.