Violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv in 1948. His father, also a violinist, encouraged a childhood talent for music and, at age eight, Zukerman entered the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. In 1961 he was heard by Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals, on whose recommendations he received scholarships enabling him to enter The Juilliard School, with Stern as his legal guardian. There, Zukerman studied with Ivan Galamian and extended his interest to the viola. He appeared at the 1966 Spoleto Festival in Italy, and was joint winner of the Leventritt Competition in 1967. The resulting solo engagements throughout North America were supplemented by his substituting for an indisposed Stern. Since Zukerman’s New York debut at Lincoln Center in 1969, he has toured frequently in Europe. With a prolific discography, he has earned 21 Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards.

Zukerman’s conducting career began in 1970 with the English Chamber Orchestra. In 1971 he first directed performances of Bach and Vivaldi concertos with himself as soloist, and in June 1974 he made a successful conducting debut with the (then New) Philharmonia Orchestra at the Festival Hall, London. He was artistic director of the South Bank Summer Music Series, London (1978-80) and music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (1980-86). Currently Zukerman is Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and of the Pinchas Zuckerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music. He was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition