History of the Old Russian School

The "Old Russian School" Line of Violin Virtuosos
The "Old Russian School" is a style of virtuoso violin techniques and pedagogy that has been passed down for over 150 years.
Old Russian virtuosos have a distinctive "Bel Canto" (Italian for "the singing voice") tone and focus on bow control for absolute accuracy.

Joseph Joachim (1831 – 1907).
Protégé of Mendelssohn and collaborated with Brahms to write his Violin Concerto in D Major.
Regarded by many contemporaries as better than Paganini and the top19th century violinist.
The first major violinist to be recorded.

Leopold Auer (1845 – 1930). Protégé of Joseph Joachim.
Widely-viewed as the greatest violin teacher of all-time.
Favored violinist of Tchaikovsky, his colleague at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory for 49 years and then at Curtis and Juilliard.

Mischa Elman (1891 – 1967). Student of Leopold Auer.
Widely-viewed as the top early-20th century violinist.

Jascha Heifetz (1900 – 1987). Protégé of Leopold Auer.
Widely-viewed as the greatest instrumentalist of all-time.

Nathan Milstein (1904 – 1992). Student of Leopold Auer.
Top mid-20th century violinist

Erick Friedman (1939 – 2004). Protégé of Jascha Heifetz.
Regarded as one of the top 5 late-20th century violinists.

Ann Fontanella (1988 – ). Protégé of Erick Friedman.

"One of the great stipulations that Heifetz imposed upon me was that I would teach and thus carry on the little bit of tradition that he gave me." The same had been wished of Heifetz by Auer, and Heifetz himself said that he always hoped that he would be "good enough to teach". As he reviews his career, Friedman muses: "Maybe I was in some way anointed to carry on a tradition that goes from Heifetz and Milstein, through Auer, back to Joachim. Because I know what it is."
- Erick Friedman 1990 interview in Strad Magazine