Composer, violinist and educator, educated at first by his father and
then the Imperial School at St. Petersburg with Auer. He made his
violin debut at Berlin in 1907, followed by a tour of Europe. His
American debut was with the Boston Symphony in 1911. Thereafter, he
joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute in 1929 and became a
director there in 1941. Conflicting sources give his date of birth as
April 9th or April 21st, but because he was born in Russia prior to the
1917 Revolution, both dates can be considered as correct; one date is
in the Old Style Calendar (pre-1917) while the other is within the New
Style Calendar adopted with the revolution in 1917. His first wife was
famed soprano Alma Gluck, one of the first sopranos to make
best-selling recordings. He was the half-brother of author
Marcia Davenport, the grandfather of
Stephanie Zimbalist, and the father
of Efrem Zimbalist Jr..
