Get Results... Advertise in our Entertainment Section! Call The Sales Department (248) 354-7123 Ext. 209 =TEM JEWISH NEWS 'TN WE ARE NOW OPEN MONDAYS CLOSED SUNDAYS Mon. thru Sat. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Fri. & Sat. (Carry-Out) 9 p.m.-11 p.m. Lincoln Shopping Center 10-1/2 Mile Road & Greenfield Oak Park ■ (248) 968-0022 American Associano Fighting Hied 0481#84) 1 1 - 0.1:a":11.1 1 - Master Musician Out with a new memoir and with a role in a new movie, violinist Isaac Stern continues to take center stage. CURT SCHLEIER Special to the Jewish News E ntering Isaac Stern's New York City duplex, a visitor is greeted by Old World elegance and charm. The furniture bespeaks an era of Carnegie and Mellon, and belies the cacophony of sirens that blast outside. The walls are bedecked with awards, cari- catures, signed photos — mementos of a 60-plus-year career as one of the finest vio- linists of the 20th century. —c Stern, too, has considerable Old World charm and ele- gance. "Can we fix you a drink," he asks. "Or we can open a bottle of champagne." There's just one problem. Stern is on the phone, calling from his car on some Connecticut highway. He'd been delayed at his country home. He will call back in five minutes, he says. "We can start the interview from the car." The occasion for the interview is publication of Stern's moving, honest and heartfelt memoir, My First 79 Years (Alfred A. Knopf; $27.50), written in collaboration with author Chaim Potok. Later, when voices are reconnected, he wants to know, Can you hear? Good. I didn't want to hold the phone while I drive." Drive? "No I don't have a driver," he explains. "I love to drive. I'm fast — but safe." Discussion of his career begins at its end. As Stern's legions of fans know, the maestro hasn't performed in about a year. He had a problem gripping his bow and had to retire. It turns out his retirement might be, as he puts it, "a temporary respite." His problem, at first misdiagnosed as arthritis, is carpal tunnel syn- drome. He's had surgery, and is in the midst of a strenuous course of rehabilitation. The odds on his return are improving. A week earlier, they were 50-50, he guesses; this week it's 65- Curt Schleier is a New Jersey-based freelance writer. 10/29 Control high blood pressure Double Concerto. The movie speaks to an issue close to Stern's heart: the necessity to fight cutbacks in arts education. Where will the next generation of great musicians — the Perlmans and Sterns — come from? "There will be many Asians and many Europeans from various coun- tries," Stern says. "A — Isaac Stern good musician becomes a person in society. The idea that all the great violinists and 35 that he will resume at least a lim- pianists are Jewish is a late 19th-cen- ited schedule of mostly chamber tury and 20th-century idea. And it music — probably with his regular came out at a time where playing an partners, Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo instrument was the only passport to and Emanuel Ax. He certainly wants to return to the get out of the ghetto. Ask if classical music has a place spotlight. "I'm a stage person. I love to in an MTV world, and Stern's voice go on stage. But I won't go back if I can't live up to my standards. I have a takes on an angry edge. The prob- lems of classical music are no differ- full life without it. I love teaching. I ent than the problems of general love talking about music. I have a education we have today," he says. very active life, which I share with a He goes on to talk about how number of people. teachers should be better trained, Stern has not only always been a better respected and better paid. great performer of music but an "They should be peo- advocate for it, too. ple who know how to He remains the teach and respect the principal reason value of young peo- Carnegie Hall isn't ple." an apartment build- And, no, classical ing, and he still music "will not suffer serves as its presi- — at least not any dent. He also gives more than great poet- master classes ry and Shakespeare. around the world. Kids must be taught In Music of the how to think — not Heart, a film opening just how to push a in theaters today, button," Stern says. Stern joins Itzhak "We also have to pass Perlman and Meryl on a love of the arts. Streep in a scene If we don't give that where the actress, to young people, portraying East we're just animals. Harlem violin By now, having suc- instructor Roberta cessfully eluded Guaspari, joins the Isaac Stern's new memoir Connecticut and New virtuosos in six min- was co-written with York troopers, Stern is utes of the Bach author Chaim Potok. "Kids must be taught how to think not just how to push a button. " )) "