No IIIINTZ-ing Words

Israeli violin virtuoso Shlomo Mintz
downplays his status as a rising star.

MEUNDA GREENBERG

Special

1'

S

to the Jewish News

ome fathers have been
known to bring baseball
mitts to the hospital for
their newborn sons.
Shlomo Mintz's father
had higher expectations — he gave
his son a violin when he was 2
months old.
That early introduction to mu-
sic paid off for Mr. Mintz, who, to-
day at age 34, has already
performed with virtually all of the
world's top orchestras and such
musical masters as Isaac Stern,
Pinchas Zuckerman and Itzhak
Perlman.
He has received rave reviews
since his concert debut at age 11
with Zubin Mehta and the Israel
Philharmonic. One critic from the
Chicago Tribune said Mr. Mintz
"plays like a poet kissed by a fiery
muse." The New York Times not-
ed that "the big boys in the fid-
dling field will have to make room
for another young Israeli, if they
have not already."
But the modest Moscow-born.
Mr. Mintz, whose family emi-
grated to Israel when he was 2
years old, does not let the good no-
tices go to his head. In fact, he
considers himself something of a
work in progress.
"There is an old Russian say-
ing, 'You will learn forever and
die stupid,' " he said in a tele-
phone interview from his home
in Port Washington, N.Y. "I don't
think of myself as rising up in my
field."
His fans and former teachers
would likely disagree with him.

So too would the journalists
whose interviews are staggered
in 20-minute intervals and close-
ly timed.
An only child, Mr. Mintz be-
gan studying the violin at age 6
under Ilona Feher, a noted soloist
from Hungary, in Israel. When
he was 11, Ms. Feher introduced
her pupil to Isaac Stern, who,
with the help of the American-Is-
rael Cultural Foundation, ar-
ranged for him to study at the
Jiiilliard School of Music in New
York. At age 16, he made his
Carnegie Hall debut with the
Pittsburgh Symphony.

One critic said Mr.
Mintz "plays like a
poet kissed by a
fiery muse."

While he has gained interna-
tional renown for his virtuosity
on the violin, Mr. Mintz is also an
accomplished conductor. But he
does not foresee himself giving up
the violin for a baton on a full-
time basis. "I would not want to
give up any of the activities I en-
joy," he said.
Still, he continues to expand
his musical horizon, and in 1989,
joined the ICO as artistic direc-
tor. The position, he said, has giv-
en him "new insights. I enjoy
doing everything that there is. I
regard all of it as part of what I
do."
Working with an Israeli or-
chestra gives Mr. Mintz a unique

opportunity — to play for his fel-
low countrymen in his adopted
homeland. "A lot of the audiences
are now Russian immigrants,"
he said. "They have different
tastes culturally speaking, but
people get what they get."
Although he returned to
Moscow in 1990 as a judge in the
International Tchaikovsky Com-
petition, Mr. Mintz has never per-
formed in his birthplace.
Someday he would like to perform
there, but "not in the Soviet
Union of today."
An extensive traveler who
gives well over_ 100 concerts a
year, Mr. Mintz has no favorite
tour stop. "Music ought to be tak-
en to all corners of the world," he
said.
His busy performance sched-
ule does keep him away from his
family quite a bit. And it has also
deterred him from teaching his
two sons, ages 6 and 8, how to
play the violin. "My not teaching
them is not a conclusion about my
parents' decision," he said. "It's
just my reality. If I only have lim-
ited time with them, I don't want
to spend it teaching them the vi-
olin." Both boys study piano,
which Mr. Mintz played before
turning to the violin.
If his sons do decide to pursue
careers in music, Mr. Mintz said
he would not stop them. He can
even offer them some sound ad-
vice. "They have to know ahead
of time that it's very difficult," he
said. "They have to be ready to
take any punishment in the pro-
cess and accept the consequences
as they come."

Violinist Shlomo Mintz was first introduced to the violin when he was 2 .months old.

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