Persinger, Louis
Persinger, Louis
Persinger, Louis, eminent American violinist and teacher; b. Rochester, III, Feb. 11,1887; d. N.Y., Dec. 31,1966. He began his violin studies at an early age in Colo., making his public debut when he was 12; then studied with Hans Becker at the Leipzig Cons. (1900–04), with Ysaye in Brussels, and with Thibaud in Paris. He toured Belgium and Germany; served as concertmaster of the Berlin Phil. (1914–15) and the San Francisco Sym. Orch. (1915–16). He then led his own string quartet and served as director of San Francisco’s Chamber Music Society (1916–28); subsequently devoted himself mainly to teaching; in 1930 he joined the staff of the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. He achieved a great reputation as a teacher who subordinated technical demands to the paramount considerations of formal balance and expressiveness of the melodic line. Among his pupils were Yehudi Menuhin, Ruggiero Ricci, and Isaac Stern.
Bibliography
Y. Menuhin, “L. P.,” Juilliard Review Annual (N.Y., 1966–67).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire