Elias Breeskin
Encyclopedia
Elias Breeskin was a violin
ist, composer and conductor
.
Elias was born sometime in 1896 in Yekaterinsolav, a small village in the Ukraine
, which has now morphed into the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk
, with over a million inhabitants. The dam on the Dneiper River, shown on the film Doctor Zhivago, is in this city.
Elias’ references to his mother were always curious in nature. He referred to her with a mixture of emotions, among them being strong love, fear, admiration, and wonder, all present in his face. Elias' father was a quiet, dear man who had learned, appropriately, not to cross his indomitable wife, who was approximately 200 pounds in weight, and quite muscular.
's E major concerto, and was a sensation. During the next two years, he toured through Ukraine and western Russia,where he was also tutored by Leopold Auer, personal musician to the Czar. Young Elias was met with overwhelming responses to his violin playing. He was hailed as one of the greatest child prodigies
ever.
Because of the Jewish massacre, the family was obliged to leave Russia. They came to America and settled in Washington, DC where they already had relatives established. Before he left Russia, Elias in 1906 played for Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, with tremendous success. Family lore has it that the emperor gave him an enormous ring, with three rubies, directly from his finger.
. The guards ignored her. She returned to the front gate day after day, until Mrs. Roosevelt asked for information about “the babushka
lady.” Olga told the First Lady about Elias, and asked if she and her friends could sponsor his musical education. After hearing him play, Mrs. Roosevelt agreed to do so, and got together a group of people, including Mr. Frank Damrosch
, who sponsored Elias’ education at the Juilliard School
of Music, at that time called the Institute of Musical Arts.
In the early part of the century, the best violin instructor in America was Franz Kneisel
. Maestro Kneisel took on Elias as a pupil, and had enormous influence on his subsequent career. After nine years at Juilliard, Elias won the Loeb prize in 1915. A part of this prize was a concert at Carnegie Hall
, which was extremely well received; the reviewers in the next day’s newspapers remarked on the warmth and purity of his tone, his technical abilities, and the sincerity and refinement of his playing.
A wealthy patron, Edward Schafer, a member of the New York Stock Exchange
, gave Elias a Rougemont Stradivarius
with a Tourte bow as a gift. Schafer had originally purchased the violin from the Randolph Wurlitzer Company, of 113 West Fortieth Street, for $16,000 together with the bow for $850. Elias and the violin were inseparable for the next ten years. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Elias returned the violin to his benefactor to help him pay his debts.
In 1917, Elias became a member of the New York Symphony under Walter Damrosch. Others in the orchestra included future superstars Mischa Elman, Pablo Casals
, and Joseph Hoffman. Elias received great reviews for his performance at the Aeolian Hall
in February 1918. Elias won a place as Enrico Caruso’s accompanist for his tour in 1918. He returned to Carnegie Hall again in April 1919 and was noted for his vigorous style.
Around the time of this marriage, Elias became pathologically addicted to gambling. This malady was to plague him with horrendous consequences for both him and his family for the rest of his life.
. In 1925, he became the conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Due to gambling debts, he had to leave Minneapolis, and ended up reestablishing the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
in 1927. After two years there, Elias continued to run up enormous gambling debt
s, and Adelyn’s father was successful in getting his daughter to agree to end the marriage, effectively ending Elias' career in Pittsburgh as well. Adelyn would later become Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.
’s The Fountains of Rome. At this time, Elias found himself in the intensive care unit of a hospital, having suffered a ruptured appendix. Peritonitis
had set in, and he was not expected to live. After considerable medical intervention, his life was saved, and he was due to be discharged from the hospital. He said goodbye to everyone, including Anna, the nurses’ orderly on the ward; he asked her in his typically dramatic way, “How can I possibly thank you for giving me back my life?” Anna looked him straight in the eye, and said, “You can marry me.” When Elias told his son John this story, the night before John's marriage, he reached his hand across the table in the bar on Broadway, tousled John's hair, and said, “It’s a good thing too, because you were three months along the way.” Anna gave birth to Elias' two sons, John first and Eugene (Gene) two years later.
show; when it moved to Hollywood, Anna, Gene and John moved there with Elias. They arrived in Hollywood in 1937, and moved into a wonderful neighborhood where Bob Hope
lived down the street. During this time, there were so many musicians who were out of work that Elias formed what later became the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and began to write music for movies. It was also at this time that he embezzled the entire payroll of the orchestra, and left for Mexico City, on the run, because Mexico did not yet have an extradition treaty with the US. The musicians of the orchestra, knowing that Elias had ripped them off, still prepared a scroll for him, testifying to his musicianship, and for giving them a step forward in their careers. Elias kept that scroll on the wall for many years.
film Neither blood nor sand. He had a daughter there who became a famous entertainer and violinist herself, Olga Breeskin
.
In 1941, Anna, Gene, and John Breeskin joined Elias in Mexico City, where he had become musical director for XEW, the most important radio station in the country. John Breeskin describes one Christmas sitting in box seat in the principal orchestra hall in Mexico City near the President of Mexico, and watching his father Elias take the stage, lift his baton, and give the downbeat for Tchaikovsky
’s The Nutcracker
. John Breeskin also describes living in a mansion with several servants, including a chauffeur, a gardener, a bodyguard, a cook and two young maids. Elias would come home from work, take off his suit jacket, and reveal a tiny Capuchin monkey tucked into his armpit. He would come home from the mercado with a parrot with violently colored feathers perched on his shoulder; this was typical.
" (the equivalent of Devil’s Island), where his cellmate was Ramón Mercader
, Leon Trotsky
’s assassin. He was held there for 13 years.
During this time his marriage ended. After Elias got out of jail, he married his third wife Lena Torres, with whom he had a daughter Olga and son Elias Junior, also an accomplished violinist. While in prison, before he was pardoned by the president of Mexico, Elias wrote La ciudad de los muertos based upon his experiences in prison. This was very favorably received when he performed it at The Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City
.
, but he broke it again, and his deteriorating body could no longer house his strong spirit. He died in his sleep of pneumonia
on Friday May 9, 1969, at the age of 73.
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, composer and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
.
Elias was born sometime in 1896 in Yekaterinsolav, a small village in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, which has now morphed into the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...
, with over a million inhabitants. The dam on the Dneiper River, shown on the film Doctor Zhivago, is in this city.
First years
Elias was the youngest of three brothers. His older twin brothers were about ten years older than he, and were identified as potential classical musicians. The story has it that Boris and Daniel, at the age of 19, went off to the Caucasus Mountains to play a violin gig. Boris ran outside in the frigid air without his overcoat, caught pneumonia, and died. Elias was profoundly affected by the death of his brother. Olga, Elias' mother, realized that he had musical talent as well, and bent her strong will to providing him with the best musical education that could be obtained in Russia at the time.Elias’ references to his mother were always curious in nature. He referred to her with a mixture of emotions, among them being strong love, fear, admiration, and wonder, all present in his face. Elias' father was a quiet, dear man who had learned, appropriately, not to cross his indomitable wife, who was approximately 200 pounds in weight, and quite muscular.
First successes
In 1903, shortly after Elias’ seventh birthday, his mother turned him over to a professional violinist in the local Conservatory in Cracow, Poland, for lessons. At the age of 8, he played BachJohann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's E major concerto, and was a sensation. During the next two years, he toured through Ukraine and western Russia,where he was also tutored by Leopold Auer, personal musician to the Czar. Young Elias was met with overwhelming responses to his violin playing. He was hailed as one of the greatest child prodigies
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
ever.
Because of the Jewish massacre, the family was obliged to leave Russia. They came to America and settled in Washington, DC where they already had relatives established. Before he left Russia, Elias in 1906 played for Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, with tremendous success. Family lore has it that the emperor gave him an enormous ring, with three rubies, directly from his finger.
In the United States
When the family arrived in America, Olga decided that she was going to seek funding for her son’s musical career. She ensconced herself in front of The White House, and asked to see Edith RooseveltEdith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt was the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1901 to 1909.-Early life:...
. The guards ignored her. She returned to the front gate day after day, until Mrs. Roosevelt asked for information about “the babushka
Babushka
Babushka , babooshka, babouchka or baboushka may refer to:*A Western term for a woman's headscarf tied below the chin in the Eastern European manner.**Babushka Lady, who wore such a headscarf....
lady.” Olga told the First Lady about Elias, and asked if she and her friends could sponsor his musical education. After hearing him play, Mrs. Roosevelt agreed to do so, and got together a group of people, including Mr. Frank Damrosch
Frank Damrosch
Frank Heino Damrosch was a German-born American music conductor and educator.-Biography:He was born on June 22, 1859 in Breslau, and came to the United States with his father, Leopold Damrosch, and brother, Walter Damrosch in 1871. He had studied music in Germany under Dionys Pruckner. He studied...
, who sponsored Elias’ education at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
of Music, at that time called the Institute of Musical Arts.
In the early part of the century, the best violin instructor in America was Franz Kneisel
Franz Kneisel
Franz Kneisel was an American violinist and teacher of Romanian birth.Born in Bucharest, the son of a German bandmaster, he learned to play the flute, clarinet and trumpet, as well as the violin...
. Maestro Kneisel took on Elias as a pupil, and had enormous influence on his subsequent career. After nine years at Juilliard, Elias won the Loeb prize in 1915. A part of this prize was a concert at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, which was extremely well received; the reviewers in the next day’s newspapers remarked on the warmth and purity of his tone, his technical abilities, and the sincerity and refinement of his playing.
A wealthy patron, Edward Schafer, a member of the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, gave Elias a Rougemont Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
with a Tourte bow as a gift. Schafer had originally purchased the violin from the Randolph Wurlitzer Company, of 113 West Fortieth Street, for $16,000 together with the bow for $850. Elias and the violin were inseparable for the next ten years. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Elias returned the violin to his benefactor to help him pay his debts.
In 1917, Elias became a member of the New York Symphony under Walter Damrosch. Others in the orchestra included future superstars Mischa Elman, Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
, and Joseph Hoffman. Elias received great reviews for his performance at the Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall (New York)
Aeolian Hall was a concert hall near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City located on the third floor of 29-33 West 42nd Street across the street from Bryant Park. The Aeolian Building was built in 1912 for the Aeolian Company, which manufactured pianos...
in February 1918. Elias won a place as Enrico Caruso’s accompanist for his tour in 1918. He returned to Carnegie Hall again in April 1919 and was noted for his vigorous style.
First health problems
In 1919, Elias met Adelyn Dohme, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the country, the owner of the Dohme Chemical Company, which became Sharp and Dohme Pharmaceuticals, and in 1953 Merck Sharp & Dohme. Adelyn’s family was very much opposed to their marriage, which took place in June 1920. Together they parented three daughters, Jean, Gloria, and Dorothy.Around the time of this marriage, Elias became pathologically addicted to gambling. This malady was to plague him with horrendous consequences for both him and his family for the rest of his life.
As a conductor
Elias and Adelyn settled down, and he became concertmaster of the Capitol Theatre Orchestra in New YorkCapitol Theatre (Rome, NY)
The Capitol Theatre is a theatre operating in Rome, New York. It opened December 10, 1928 as part of the Kallet chain of movie houses, presenting first run films until it closed in 1974....
. In 1925, he became the conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Due to gambling debts, he had to leave Minneapolis, and ended up reestablishing the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.-History:...
in 1927. After two years there, Elias continued to run up enormous gambling debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
s, and Adelyn’s father was successful in getting his daughter to agree to end the marriage, effectively ending Elias' career in Pittsburgh as well. Adelyn would later become Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art.
As a composer
When Elias returned in disgrace to New York, he composed Cosmopolis, a descriptive piece which somewhat resembles Ottorino RespighiOttorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
’s The Fountains of Rome. At this time, Elias found himself in the intensive care unit of a hospital, having suffered a ruptured appendix. Peritonitis
Peritonitis
Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...
had set in, and he was not expected to live. After considerable medical intervention, his life was saved, and he was due to be discharged from the hospital. He said goodbye to everyone, including Anna, the nurses’ orderly on the ward; he asked her in his typically dramatic way, “How can I possibly thank you for giving me back my life?” Anna looked him straight in the eye, and said, “You can marry me.” When Elias told his son John this story, the night before John's marriage, he reached his hand across the table in the bar on Broadway, tousled John's hair, and said, “It’s a good thing too, because you were three months along the way.” Anna gave birth to Elias' two sons, John first and Eugene (Gene) two years later.
The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra
Elias was the arranger and one of the performers for the Eddie CantorEddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
show; when it moved to Hollywood, Anna, Gene and John moved there with Elias. They arrived in Hollywood in 1937, and moved into a wonderful neighborhood where Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
lived down the street. During this time, there were so many musicians who were out of work that Elias formed what later became the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and began to write music for movies. It was also at this time that he embezzled the entire payroll of the orchestra, and left for Mexico City, on the run, because Mexico did not yet have an extradition treaty with the US. The musicians of the orchestra, knowing that Elias had ripped them off, still prepared a scroll for him, testifying to his musicianship, and for giving them a step forward in their careers. Elias kept that scroll on the wall for many years.
In Mexico
In the 1940s he moved to Mexico and became an exclusive artist of the XEB Radio station in Mexico City, the oldest in the country composed scores for the Cinema of Mexico including the CantinflasCantinflas
Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes , was a Mexican comic film actor, producer, and screenwriter known professionally as Cantinflas. He often portrayed impoverished campesinos or a peasant of pelado origin...
film Neither blood nor sand. He had a daughter there who became a famous entertainer and violinist herself, Olga Breeskin
Olga Breeskin
Olga Breeskin is a Mexican violinist, dancer, actress and vedette. She is the daughter of the late Russian violinist and conductor Elias Breeskin.-Early life:...
.
In 1941, Anna, Gene, and John Breeskin joined Elias in Mexico City, where he had become musical director for XEW, the most important radio station in the country. John Breeskin describes one Christmas sitting in box seat in the principal orchestra hall in Mexico City near the President of Mexico, and watching his father Elias take the stage, lift his baton, and give the downbeat for Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
’s The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
. John Breeskin also describes living in a mansion with several servants, including a chauffeur, a gardener, a bodyguard, a cook and two young maids. Elias would come home from work, take off his suit jacket, and reveal a tiny Capuchin monkey tucked into his armpit. He would come home from the mercado with a parrot with violently colored feathers perched on his shoulder; this was typical.
In prison
In May 1945, Elias was arrested and taken to jail as a political prisoner due to his gambling debts and for being on the wrong side of the political process; he was sent to "las Islas MaríasIslas Marías Federal Prison
The Islas Marías Federal Penal Colony is a penitentiary establishment of the Federal Government of Mexico, administered through the Federal Secretariat of Public Security...
" (the equivalent of Devil’s Island), where his cellmate was Ramón Mercader
Ramón Mercader
Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández was a Spanish communist who became famous as the murderer of Russian Communist ideologist Leon Trotsky in 1940, in Mexico...
, Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
’s assassin. He was held there for 13 years.
During this time his marriage ended. After Elias got out of jail, he married his third wife Lena Torres, with whom he had a daughter Olga and son Elias Junior, also an accomplished violinist. While in prison, before he was pardoned by the president of Mexico, Elias wrote La ciudad de los muertos based upon his experiences in prison. This was very favorably received when he performed it at The Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
His death
Elias, who never bothered to look about him when he was crossing the street, was hit by a car, and broke his hip. The hip was replacedHip replacement
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi replacement. Such joint replacement orthopaedic surgery generally is conducted to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe...
, but he broke it again, and his deteriorating body could no longer house his strong spirit. He died in his sleep of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on Friday May 9, 1969, at the age of 73.