Stuart Canin, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1980, and concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera from 1970 to 1972, was born in New York City where he studied the violin with famed pedagogue Ivan Galamian. In 1959 he surpassed 25 other violinists to capture the first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. One year later he was honored by his native city with its highest cultural award, the Handel Medal, in recognition of his musical achievements.
Canin has served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rica, the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York City, and from 1995 to 1998 he was a guest concertmaster of the Tokyo based New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa. As concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony under Ozawa, Canin was featured as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions, including concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Tokyo as part of the San Francisco Symphony tours. He has also appeared as soloist with such conductors as Slatkin, Krips, Marriner, Zinman, Macal, Nagano and Ozawa. As a recitalist and as a soloist with other major European and American orchestras, Canin has concretized extensively throughout the two continents.
Mr. Canin had the honor of giving the first performance on the Jascha Heifetz Guarnerius violin after the death of the great violinist in 1987. The concert was given in San Franscisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum and received the highest critical acclaim.
For many years, Canin was a Chamber Music Artist at the Aspen, Colorado Music Festival, as well as the Spoleto Festival of Two Words in Spoleto, Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. For seven years Canin, one of the founders of the New Century Orchestra, led the conductorless orchestra as Music Director and Concertmaster. During his tenure the orchestra made recordings of music by Shostakovich, Ginastera and Alberto Williams. The Shostakovich was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997. In 2001 Mr. Canin was appointed concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, a position he still holds. |
