Daniel Heifetz is the founder and director of the Heifetz International Music Institute. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Heifetz has dedicated himself to the art of communication through performance and education.
Heifetz is acclaimed on four continents for his extraordinary virtuosity, profound artistry, and charismatic stage presence. His numerous appearances include recitals and solo performances with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Berlin orchestras. His concert tours have taken him throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America.
As an educator, Heifetz has served as professor of violin at three major universities: the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition to these postings, Heifetz has given master classes all over the world.
Heifetz has been featured on major television and radio programs. CBS devoted a nationwide program to “Art of the Unaccompanied Violin,” starring Heifetz; he appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; and he was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
Heifetz was a prize winner in both the Merriweather-Post competition in Washington, D.C., and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. As an artist who has always possessed a deep social commitment, he stunned the Tchaikovsky Competition officials and Soviet government when he met with Alexander Ginsburg’s wife and donated his prize money to the families of jailed dissidents Ginsburg and Scharansky. Because of this humanitarian gesture, Richard L. Thornburgh — former United States Attorney General and Governor of Pennsylvania — held a state dinner in his honor.
Heifetz was raised in Southern California and began violin studies at the age of 6. At 16 he became a student of the legendary Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was coached by Jascha Brodsky and, upon Zimbalist’s retirement, he concluded his studies with renowned pedagogue Ivan Galamian. He made his New York orchestral debut at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra.