Toscha Seidel

Seidel was born in Odessa on November 17, 1899, to a Jewish family.{{cite web | url=https://theamericanscholar.org/toscha-seidel-sound-of-tinseltown/ | title=The Sound of Tinseltown | date=4 December 2017 }} A student of Leopold Auer in St. Petersburg, Seidel became known for a lush, romantic tone and unique and free rubato. In the 1930s he emigrated to the United States. Before making his way to Hollywood where he made a career in the studios of motion pictures, he had a show on CBS radio called The Toscha Seidel Program; he was also that radio network's musical director.{{Cite web |date=2017-12-04 |title=The Sound of Tinseltown |url=https://theamericanscholar.org/the-sound-of-tinseltown/ |access-date=2022-05-04 |website=The American Scholar |language=en-US}} He was featured (as soloist) in several Hollywood productions, including the movies Intermezzo, Melody for Three, and even The Wizard of Oz.{{Cite news |last=Stewart |first=James B. |date=2022-05-09 |title=A Violin From Hollywood's Golden Age Aims at an Auction Record |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/arts/music/seidel-stradivarius-violin-auction.html |access-date=2022-05-12 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Citation|title=The Wizard of Oz (1939) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/fullcredits|access-date=2020-11-10}} He was also an avid chess player (like Mischa Elman). In 1922, George Gershwin wrote a song about him and his fellow Russian-Jewish virtuoso violinists called, "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha."

Seidel had a weekly broadcast on the CBS radio network in the 1930s.

In 1934 Seidel gave violin instruction to Albert Einstein, and received a sketch in return, reportedly diagramming length contraction of his theory of relativity.{{Cite web|url=http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=7708|title = Toscha Seidel}}{{cite web |url=http://www.magnes.org/about/press/102703.html |title=Press Releases || the Magnes |website=www.magnes.org |access-date=14 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927094802/http://www.magnes.org/about/press/102703.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}

He died on November 15, 1962.

File:19240427 Toscha Seidel buys Da Vinci Stradivarius violin - $25,000 - New York Times.jpg

Seidel performed on several well-known violins including:

• Antonio Stradivari, the "da Vinci" 1714 (now known as the Ex-Seidel), which he purchased in 1924 for $25,000 and said he wouldn't trade it for a million
• Giovanni Battista Guadagnini 1786 (now known as the Ex-Seidel)
• a copy of the "Alard Stradivari" by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume 1860.

• "The boy (Jascha Heifetz) was one of those in a group of young Jewish violinists who later startled the world. The others would include Mischa Elman, Tosha Seidel, Efrem Zimbalist and Nathan Milstein." —New York Times by Harold Schonberg, Published: December 12, 1987

• [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/109105 Toscha Seidel recordings] at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l362Ke9K99s Toscha Seidel plays Intermezzo by Heinz Provost]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH8f7thLXAs Toscha Seidel plays Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms]

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Category:1899 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Russian classical violinists

Category:American male violinists

Category:Jewish classical musicians

Category:Jewish Ukrainian musicians

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:Russian male classical violinists

Category:Soviet violinists

Category:20th-century American classical violinists