Leopold Auer trained a generation of great violinists

Person: Leopold Auer
Lived: 1845–1930
Field: Violin teaching
From: Hungarian-born

The story

Leopold Auer was born in 1845 in Veszprém, in the Kingdom of Hungary, into a poor Jewish household of painters. A gifted child, he studied in Budapest and Vienna and then with the great violinist Joseph Joachim in Hanover. In 1868 the composer Anton Rubinstein recruited him to the St Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. He agreed to a three-year contract and ended up staying for 49 years, until 1917.

In those decades Auer became one of the leading violin teachers in Europe. He headed the conservatory's violin department, led the Russian Musical Society quartet and founded what has been described as the first string quartet in Russia. Above all, his classroom became a training ground for an extraordinary run of young players. Mischa Elman and Efrem Zimbalist entered the conservatory in 1902, and Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein followed later that decade. Toscha Seidel, Kathleen Parlow, Joseph Achron, Oscar Shumsky and Clara Rockmore were also among his pupils.

His teaching was unusual for its time. Rather than drilling technique for its own sake, Auer focused on interpretation and musical ideas, while still insisting on accuracy. He rarely demonstrated with the bow. Students had to prepare a complete movement of a major work and perform it in front of an audience, and he demanded punctuality and discipline. He prized vitality in playing, a quality of fire and liveliness that he wanted every student to bring to the music.

Auer also cared for his pupils beyond the lesson room. He helped them find scholarships, patrons and instruments, and even helped them obtain the residence permits they needed to live and study in the city.

When the Russian Revolution made work impossible, many of Auer's students carried his approach abroad. Elman, Heifetz, Milstein and Zimbalist all settled in the United States, and Zimbalist went on to teach at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and later to direct it. The Curtis Institute says its violin teaching today still draws on traditions that trace back to Auer and Zimbalist.

Through his students, and their students in turn, his ideas about how to play and how to teach reached concert halls and classrooms around the world. Many of the violinists heard in concerts and recordings today learned from teachers who can trace their training back to his studio in St Petersburg.

Why it matters

The way the violin is taught and played in conservatories today still carries Auer's influence, passed down through the students he trained and the teachers they became.

About Leopold Auer

Hungarian-Jewish violinist whose St. Petersburg class produced Heifetz, Elman, Milstein and Zimbalist, and who used his influence to shield Jewish students from Russia’s residence laws.

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Leopold Auer

1845–1930 · Violin teaching

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