Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. - New Hartford, CT - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Efrem Zimbalist war born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia on April 9, 1890. A musical prodigy, he entered the the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study violin at when he was twelve years old, graduating with honors, a gold medal and the Rubinstein Prize, in 1907. He was one of the foremost violinist of the early 20th century. He was also an accomplished pianist.

After graduation he played in Berlin, London and the United States with the Boston Symphony Orcherstra. He immigrated to the Unites States in 1912. He married Romanian-American opera soprano Alma Gluck in 1914. They are the parents of actors Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and the grandparents of television star Stephanie Zimbalist.

In 1929 he joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia, PA. He became head of the violin department later a director of the school in 1941. At the Curtis School he taught many now famous musicians such as Joseph Silverstein and Oscar Shumsky.

He was an accomplished composer whose works include a violin concerto, the American Rhapsody - a piano concerto , a the tone poem Daphnis and Chloe, a fantasy on themes from The Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and a fantasy on the opera Carmen by George Bizet.