Heard yesterday that famous violinist Isaac Stern passed away yesterday at the age of 81. I recalled he was the one who performed in the movie soundtrack for "Fiddler on the Roof."

You can read more about his life and accomplishments here .

A very sad loss. Here's a link to the NY Times obit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/obituaries/23STER.html

[ September 23, 2001: Message edited by: netizen ]

Very grieved to hear of Isaac Stern's death. At a time when New York is already stunned by the horrific deaths of September 11, Stern's passing compounds the country's sadness.

Isaac Stern will be remembered not only as a consumate violinist, but for his pivotal role in saving Carnegie Hall from the wrecking ball, and advocacy of the arts in general.

Maestro Isaac Stern was one of my heroes, not only because he was a "pure souled" violinist but because he was such a hero to the entire field of classical music. He saved things, concert halls and people. His was a life worth living. May we all aspire to as much in our own lives.

The great maestro is remembered:

Ode to Isaac: Carnegie Hall says
farewell to its protector, violinist
Isaac Stern

By MARTIN STEINBERG
The Associated Press
10/30/01 7:40 PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was Isaac Stern's last standing ovation at Carnegie
Hall. After some six decades and 200 performances there, Stern was
gone. And yet he wasn't.

A month after his death at age 81, the man who prevented one of
America's citadels of culture from being turned into an office tower was
remembered Tuesday with a free concert inside the auditorium named for
him.

The Isaac Stern Auditorium's 2,800 seats were all filled, and 400 other
people watched the concert via closed-circuit TV elsewhere in the
110-year-old building.

"Welcome to Isaac Stern's favorite room," Carnegie Hall Board Chairman
Sanford I. Weill told the audience. "Isaac loved to say what made Carnegie
Hall so special was the spirit of Tchaikovsky, Horowitz, Toscanini and
countless others in these walls. ... Now Isaac joins those spirits within
Carnegie Hall."

Weill's were the only words from the stage about Stern, one of the
20th-century's leading violinists who -- in addition to his extraordinary ear
for music -- had an eye for young talent and a gift for speech.

The music did the speaking Tuesday.

The construction workers building the subterranean Zankel Hall addition
halted their efforts, making way for Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo
Ma, Midori and other top musicians who paid tribute to the man who
helped cultivate their talents and guide their stellar careers.

In a fitting tribute to the future, these performers were joined by 24-year-old
violist Jessica Thompson and 23-year-old cellist Efe Baltacigil, who
participated in the last two Isaac Stern chamber music workshops.

All four pieces on the program had special meaning for Stern.

The first was said to be one of his first great loves -- the Allegretto ma non
troppo from Beethoven's Op. 70 No. 2 trio. Pianist Joseph Kalichstein,
violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson performed it with a
playfulness and simplicity that artfully masked the complexity of the
piece.

Next was the elegant Larghetto from Mozart's piano quartet K. 493,
performed by pianist Ax, violinist Midori, Laredo on viola and Ma on cello.
Stern performed this work many times, including his last concert at
Carnegie Hall in 2000 and at his final performance, in Japan in May.

Dvorak's Romance in F Minor, the only piece on the program in a minor
key, was next. Perlman and pianist Yefim Bronfman captured the sweet,
yearning song that was a Stern favorite.

The concert culminated with the lush first movement of Brahms' Op. 18
sextet. Perlman, Midori, Ma and violist Pinchas Zukerman were joined by
Thompson and Baltacigil. Stern, whose smiling, rabbinical face graced the
cover of the program, would have loved seeing this intergenerational
display of fire and passion.

Thompson, who is from Plymouth, Minn., is a recent graduate of the Curtis
Institute of Music. She participated in the 2000 Isaac Stern workshop in
Jerusalem last year. Baltacigil, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, studies at
Curtis. He participated in Stern's final workshop at Carnegie Hall, four
months before Stern's death.

Before the music began Tuesday, Weill recalled that one of Stern's
grandchildren said at the funeral that his grandfather's soul did not die. "A
little bit of it is now in all of us," Weill said.

He then invited the audience to give that final standing ovation.