ENTE,RTAINMENT
Fiddlin'
About
MELINDA GREENBERG
Special to The Jewish News
Violinist
Daniel
Heifetz
runs the
musical
gamut
from
George
Harrison
to Jewish
soul music
to Vivaldi.
Violinist Daniel Heifetz brings a well- rounded background to his music.
II. n his white tie and
tails, Daniel Heifetz
looks very much the
part of a violin virtu-
oso. As audiences
watch him play his
"fiddle," as he calls it,
they see but one as-
pect of his multi-faceted career
and life.
They see little of the man
Frank Zappa wrote music for or
who has "jammed" with George
Harrison. They see nothing of
the proud Jew who introduced
"Jewish soul music" to prisoners
in a New York penitentiary and
who donated his prize money
from the Tchaikovsky competi-
tion in Moscow to dissident fam-
ilies. They hear nothing of his
dreams of being "a gentleman
farmer."
Mr. Heifetz, who is 43, was
not your typical child prodigy.
He was raised in Beverly Hills,
Calif., as a "normal child," by
parents who encouraged family
discussions and debates. Music
was, however, a big part of the
Heifetz household — all four chil-
dren played instruments and
gave concerts for their parents.
Despite the advice of friends
to get young Daniel a tutor in
place of regular school so he
could focus on the violin, Mr.
Heifetz's parents, a neurosur-
geon and a homemaker, "told ev-
eryone to back off." Mr. Heifetz
remained in his school until he
decided, at age 16, to pursue an
education at Philadelphia's Cur-
tis Institute of Music, under the
tutelage of legendary Efram
Zimbalist who made a place for
Mr. Heifetz in his class.
Mr. Zimbalist's vote of confi-
dence paid off. At age 20, Mr.
Heifetz won the Merriweather-
Post Competition in Washing-
ton, D.C., and was invited to tour
with the National Symphony
Orchestra. One stop on that tour
was New York's Avery Fisher
Hall in Lincoln Center, where
Mr. Heifetz played the Tchaik-
Photo By Christian Steiner
ovsky Violin Concerto.
In addition to his musical
training, Mr. Heifetz credits, in
part, his upbringing for his suc-
cess. "You bring who you are as
a person to your music and your
audience," said Mr. Heifetz in
a telephone interview from his
Maryland home, between trips
to New York and South Caroli-
na. "When you have a broad per-
spective in life, all those things
come through in your music."
While he believes that a well-
rounded background comes
through in the music, Mr. Hei-
fetz feels that music can appeal
to people with little or no edu-
cation. He discovered that first-
hand playing for prison inmates
in the Tombs in New York.
In the beginning of his career,
Mr. Heifetz wanted to bring mu-
sic to "areas of society not ex-
posed to music." When he
walked in front of the inmates,
he informed them that he was
going to play "Jewish soul mu-
sic" for them.
"I told them my mother was
born in Germany and that her
family died in concentration
camps," he said. "I told them that
the music of one persecuted mi-
nority group could relate to oth-
er persecuted minority groups
and one inmate called out
`Right on, Brother.' "
Mr. Heifetz played Nigun, a
musical piece based on a Jewish
liturgical chant. "They cried,"
Mr. Heifetz said. "The warden
said I got a bigger response than
Johnny Cash had. If music is de-
livered on a basic human level,
you don't need an education to
feel it."
A student of music legends
Jascha Brodsky and Ivan
Galamian and a distant relative
of renowned violinist Jascha
Heifetz, Mr. Heifetz has con-
nected with audiences on five
continents. The Baltimore Sun
said Mr. Heifetz "played with
extraordinary virtuosity, imag-
ination and beauty of tone." The
Times-Colonist in British
Columbia praised Mr. Heifetz's
rendition of Vivaldi's The Four
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
63