Isaac Stern was one of the 20th century’s greatest violinists. He was born in Poland on July 21, 1920, came to the United States when he was a little over a year old, and grew up in San Francisco. He made his public début as a violinist with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of fifteen, playing a violin concerto by Saint-Saëns. During the Second World War, Stern was rejected from military service for medical reasons, but he joined the United Service Organizations (USO) and performed frequently for U.S. troops during the war.

Stern performed extensively both in the States and internationally. He toured the U.S.S.R. in 1951 — the first American violinist to do so — as well as China, and performed frequently in Israel. He championed younger players, among whom were violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zuckerman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and he made many recordings, six of which won Grammy Awards. He was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was named to the French Legion of Honor.

Isaac Stern was also known for his activism. In the early 1960s he spearheaded a campaign to save Carnegie Hall from demolition; the New York Philharmonic were getting a new home at the recently built Lincoln Center and it was felt that Carnegie Hall would no longer be needed. But a committee of civic leaders organized by Stern were eventually successful in saving the Hall. Stern continued to perform there regularly over the next four decades; his final appearance there was in 2001 and he passed away three months later at the age of 81. Today, the main auditorium in Carnegie Hall is named after him.

Isaac Stern will be the featured performer on KCME’s Back in the Day Friday, July 21 at 6:00pm — on what would have been his 103rd birthday. I hope you’ll tune in for an hour of great music by this legendary violinist.