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Focus:

Studying the violin with Ivan Galamian

Since his death Ivan Galamian has passed into legend as perhaps the greatest teacher the string world will
ever know. Barbara L. Sand asked some of his ex-pupils whether their former master really lived up to
his reputation
May 1, 2015

Ivan Galamian arrived in the US in 1937, having grown up in Russia and subsequently emigrating to Paris. Over
the next 40 years, until his death in 1981, Galamian became the most powerful and sought-after violin teacher in
the country. Many of his students have certainly been successful: during those years the highly regarded
Leventritt Competition was won by no fewer than seven Galamian students: Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman,
Betty Jean Hagen, Sergiu Luca, Arnold Steinhardt, David Nadien and Kyung-Wha Chung. Other students were
winners of the Queen Elisabeth, Tchaikovsky, Carl Flesch and Wieniawski competitions in fact all the
international competitions of note. But although such students ensured that his reputation as a great pedagogue
remained unchallenged, Galamian also made his name as a teacher who could produce excellent results from
less talented material. Indeed, his teaching methods were envied and emulated throughout his career and, after
his death, were perpetuated through the Meadowmount School of Music.
Upon arriving in the US, Galamians Manhattan studio almost immediately became a mecca for gifted students.
Word of mouth via both parents and and teachers produced a constant stream of young hopefuls, and even after
Galamian was appointed to the faculties of both the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute in the mid 1940s,
most of his teaching continued to take place in his studio, In 1941 Galamian married Judith Johnson and in 1944
they established the Meadowmount School of Music in the Adirondack mountains, which was to become
famous worldwide for its high standards.
David Nadien was one of a handful of violinists who lived with the Galamians while studying with the master.
He later became concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and held that post for some years before deciding
to work as a freelance musician and teacher.
The apartment [the Galamians permanent home on West 73rd Street in Manhattan] had great long hallways
and a lot of rooms, recalls Nadien. Galamian had his studio in the front, and we Helen Kwalwasser, Yura
Osmolovsy and I had rooms in the back where we practised three or four hours a day. It was a relaxed
atmosphere and all of us had fun. Galamian had two beautiful boxer dogs that he was devoted to, and they were
a big part of the household. At one time it seemed that somebody was stealing food from the fridge. Galamian
stayed up in the dark in the kitchen one night to catch the guilty party. One of the boxers had actually figured out
how to manipulate the handle and open the fridge door!

Galamian was a good musician with excellent musical taste. The students who played best did not always do
what he suggested, but if they sounded well he was wise enough to leave them alone. He taught by
demonstration, and one had to use a grain of salt with some of the things he said. However, he gave me a
general musical approach to understanding the repertoire, which I had not received from my previous teacher
Adolfo Betti. Galamian stressed warmth and good sound and unquestionably deserves a major place in the
history of violin teaching.
Many of Galamians students seem to have found him a more intimidating character than Nadien, perhaps
because they did not live at such close quarters.
His teaching method was Scare You to Death, says Itzhak Perlman, You had better play it perfectly or else his
eyes would glare down on you and make you feel like Thats It! There was almost no room for give and take
because he had a particular system that he applied to everybody. Some of his greatness lies in the fact that he
could teach anybody, no matter how talented or untalented they were, to play the violin very well. Some would
be more inspired, some would be better, obviously, but they would all be proficient at what they did when they
studied with him.
I was nervous around Galamian when I was his student, confirms Arnold Steinhardt, first violinist of the
Guarneri Quartet. He didnt speak a lot during a lesson and hardly ever smiled. He never threatened or cajoled
he had enormous presence. His basic feeling was that anybody could become a fine violinist. The stage was
already set in his studio, with photographs of Vieuxtemps and Corelli looking at you, He taught from 8am to
6pm seven days a week, and every lesson would last precisely 59 minutes never more, never less. All
Galamians students were given two basic principles, which he delivered in a heavy Russian accent. One was
More bow! and the other was Play so that the last person in the last row of the hall can hear you. Both
excellent pieces of advice.
Later after I had graduated, I came to know Galamian socially and found he could be both kind and funny.
Sometimes we would play chess together at Meadowmount and he would like to have a glass of vodka with the
game, One glass is good, he would say; two is better; three is not enough. When I was no longer a student
he was very friendly.
James Buswell, who teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music, is another artist who studied with
Galamian. Not a day goes by that I dont talk about him as a teacher, says Buswell. Once you have been under
a master, it pervades all your own teaching.
Buswell describes Galamian as a man with an analytical mind who tried to instill in students his profound
philosophy of order. Galamian had a revolutionary technique for the bow arm, which was based on his
knowledge of the laws of physics and anatomy, he says, referring to the critical ability to project the violin
sound. Galamians burden was the acoustic survival of the stringed instrument. He taught his students how to
make the violin soar over an orchestra. Buswell adds: He had incredible patience. If he had confidence in you
and felt you were on the right path, he was ready to repeat the same thing over and over. He was a man of quiet
determination who had a constant work ethic.
People always said Galamian could make a violinist out of a table, says Peter Oundjian, ex-first violinist of the
Tokyo Quartet and now a conductor, who studied with both Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. I think he could
make anyone have a sound because he really had a method of position for the bow arm. But I remember one
particular lesson in which I was having trouble with a passage in the Lalo Concerto. I played through the four
tudes and the Bach I had been assigned and the whole Lalo, Galamian did not say anything, so I said to him:
Mr Galamian, in this passage in the last movement of the Lalo I am really having difficulty. Can you tell me
how I can make it better? Galamians response was to say, soberly, When you have played it 2,000 times it
will be much easier. Unfortunately, its not true. Now I am older I think it is more important to find out what
you are doing wrong than to play a piece 2,000 times and see if it gets easier.
Dorothy DeLay, who subsequently wore the mantle of the worlds most famous violin teacher, was herself a
student of Galamian and later became his chief assistant. The two had a longstanding dispute over teaching
methods in the early 1970s, but Delay continued to speak of Galamian with great respect. He came from
southern Russia, from an Armenian family, and in those families the fathers word is law, she said. If anyone in
the family disobeys, it is a powerful insult to the father. Galamians background meant that he was a person for

whom dignity was very important, and he felt that formalities, even with children, must be adhered to. So there
was that cultural difference between us. He preferred to work in straightforward ways on technique. His area of
expertise was the bow and he was excellent with it. His students all had big, healthy sounds and they were
beautifully organised.
Galamians teaching method has been summed up by Robin Stowell, editor of The Cambridge Companion to
the Violin, as follows: [It] embraces the best traditions of the Russian and French violin schools. For him, the
key to technical proficiency is mental control over physical movement, but his is a flexible method with no rigid
rules. More important is that the teacher promotes the maximum musical and technical development in each
individual.
This article was first published in The Strads September 1997 issue. Subscribe to The Strad
or download our digital edition as part of a 30-day free trial. To purchase single issues click here.

RELATED LINKS
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