Piotr Janowski: Arthur Gelbrun - Nigun and Dance

This piece was recording during a recital that Janowski gave at the Ohio State University on Nov. 8th 2000 with Steven Glaser.

Piotr Janowski was one of the greatest and least known musical talents of our time. At the tender age of 16 he won the Wieniawski International Competition in Poznan, Poland. Later in the US, Piotr studied with Heifetz and Galamian. Among his notable performances, he played the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Leonard Bernstein in Carnegie Hall. He lived in Norway for about two decades, teaching and performing. In the last years of his life he lived in Warsaw. One of his most prominent recordings is the Wieniawski Collection, which won him accolades from Strad Magazine. He was married to Polish pianist Joanna Maklakiewicz. He died suddenly and tragically from cardiac arrest in 2008 while in England.

Artur Gelbrun, born in Warsaw on July 11, 1913 was a graduate of the Warsaw Conservatory in violin and conducting. He furthered his studies at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome under Bernardino Molinari, Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Alfredo Casella and later in Switzerland with Hermann Scherchen (conducting) and with Willy Burkhardt (composition).

After emigrating to Israel in 1949, Gelbrun devoted his time to composition, conducting and teaching. He was permanent guest conductor with the RSO (Kol Israel SO) in Jerusalem (1949-53), chief conductor of the Israel Youth SO (1950-56) and of the Kibbutz ChO (1950-55). In 1955 he was appointed professor of composition and conducting at the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv University. Among the awards made to him is the Israeli Broadcast Prize, 1973. Artur Gelbrun died in Tel Aviv on December 23, 1985.