Heifetz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. There is controversy over his birth year, which is sometimes placed a year or two earlier to 1899 or 1900. It is possible that his mother made him two years younger to make him seem like more of a prodigy. His father, Ruvin Heifetz, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilna Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. Jascha took up the violin when he was three years old and his father was his first teacher. At five he started lessons with Ilya D. Malkin, a form… read more
Heifetz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. There is controversy over his birth year, which is sometimes placed a year or two earlier to 1899 or 1900. It is possible that his mother made him two years younger to make him seem like more of a prodigy. His father, Ru… read more
Heifetz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. There is controversy over his birth year, which is sometimes placed a year or two earlier to 1899 or 1900. It is possible that his mother made him two years younger to make him seem like more of a prodigy. His father, Ruvin Heifetz, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster … read more