American Violinist Aaron Rosand Died in 2019

Mr Rosand was a beloved teacher who served a 38 year teaching position at the Curtis Institute of Music

American violinist and pedagogue Aaron Rosand died on this day in 2019, aged 92.

A student of Leon Sametini and Efrem Zimbalist, he was a beloved teacher who served a longterm teaching position at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he taught for 38 years. His students have won every major violin competition and include Benjamin Schmid, Alexander Kerr, Stephanie Jeong, and VC Artists Ray Chen, Richard Lin, Yu-Chien Benny Tseng, and Stephen Waarts, among many others.

He extended the legacy of the Russian violin school through teaching and performing, particularly the traditions of Leopold Auer and Eugene Ysaye.

“It’s a grand tradition of violin playing, where you’re not cloning people, giving them all the same advice so that they all sound the same," Rosand said in 2008. "It’s a freedom of creative interpretation in making music.”

Rosand soloed extensively with major orchestras around the world throughout his life. He played on the ex-Kochanski Guarneri del Gesù violin until its sale 2009.

"Aaron Rosand, the greatest violin teacher of his time, he taught in such a way that challenged his students to their maximum capabilities," VC Artist Ray Chen said. "In lessons he would take out his violin and play a passage, no matter how difficult, so gracefully, and with such gravitas, that it would make one immediately think 'I need to do better.'"

AARON ROSAND | SCAINT SAËNS | VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 3 | FERNAND QUATTROCCHI & ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE L'ORTF | 1970