Sascha Jacobsen

Sascha Jacobsen in 1919

Sascha Jacobsen (11 December [O.S. 29 November] 1895 - 19 March 1972) was a Jewish-American violinist and teacher born in Russia, now Finland.^[1] He grew up in St. Petersburg, then moved with his family to New York City as a boy.

Biography

He was born on 11 December 1895 in Helsinki, Finland.

He graduated from Juilliard School in 1915 as a pupil of Franz Kneisel and upon graduation received the Morris Loeb Memorial Award. He founded the Musical Art Quartet from 1927-33. Later he taught at Juilliard; among his pupils were Julius Hegyi and Zvi Zeitlin.

In the 1950s Jacobsen served as concertmaster in the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Alfred Wallenstein. He played the Red Diamond Stradivarius violin (see the story about its loss and restoration at ).

He died on 19 March 1972 in Los Angeles, California.

Legacy

Jacobsen is one of the subjects of George Gershwin's 1922 song "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha". Sascha also gave violin lessons to his dear friend Albert Einstein, and recorded the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet with Jascha Heifetz, Jesus San Roma, and the Musical Art Quartet.

References

1. In his book "Great Masters of the Violin", Boris Schwarz claims that Jacobsen was born in New York in 1897 and that his manager tried to turn him into a “Russian fiddler” for publicity purposes