Stuart Canin, Founding Music Director
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 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.
Mr. Canin has served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City, and from 1995 to 1998 he was guest concertmaster of the Tokyo-based New Japan Philharmonic under Siji Ozawa. As concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony under Mr. Ozawa, Mr. 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 Leonard Slatkin, Josef Krips, Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Zdeněk Macal, Kent Nagano, and Seiji Ozawa. As a recitalist and as soloist with other major European and American orchestras, Mr. Canin has concretized extensively throughout the two continents.
For many years, Mr. Canin was a Chamber Music Artist at the Aspen, Colorado Music Festival, as well as the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. He has served as Professor of Violin at prestigious conservatories in this country and abroad, among them the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany. He has given master classes at the Shanghai, China Conservatory of Music at the invitation of the Chinese government and, while in China, appeared as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony. Mr. Canin had the signal 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 Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum and received the highest critical acclaim.
Mr. Canin has recorded an album of the music of Swiss composer Frank Martin for New Albion Records. The album contains the Violin Concerto, the Maria Triptychon for violin, soprano, and orchestra, and the Etudes for String Orchestra. The Berkeley Symphony is the featured orchestra for the violin concerto and the Maria Tryptychon, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra performs the Etudes. For seven years, Mr. Canin, one of the founders of the New Century Chamber 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.
Recommended recordings:
New Century Chamber Orchestra
Written With The Heart’s Blood
New Century Chamber Orchestra
Echoes of Argentina
New Century Chamber Orchestra
The Music of Frank Martin