Violin Resources – A Performing, Learning, Artistic, and Teaching Web Resource and Platform for Violinists and Musicians, By Orion Music and Arts, Cambridge, MA, est. 2023

Yehudi Menuhin, American-born, British violinist, educator, and cultural ambassador

Sir Yehudi Menuhin (center), pictured during a break from a violin lesson and masterclass

A tireless advocate for music education, the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin’s mark on educating young musicians in the form of material and cultural institutions, places, and opportunities, in addition to direct contributions to pedagogies of various kinds, can still be felt in this day and age.

Range of Educational Efforts

Himself playing for troops during the Second World War with pianist and composer Benjamin Britten, Menuhin later founded an organization – spanning nine countries – that saw to young musicians doing variants of the same – and for both artistry as well as the greater social good. Young performers in its group played for the infirmed, imprisoned, students in special schools, and other sections of the community deprived of concert-going opportunities.

Music Festivals for Education

The same year, Menuhin found a summer music festival and music academy bearing his name – the International Menuhin Academy and Festival for musicians and young musicians in Gstaad, Switzerland, and in an effort that continues to promote musical flourishing at the highest levels even today and as one of the only festivals instituted by a musician of international standing.

Music Competitions for Education and Outreach

In addition, and in 1983, Menuhin founded, in addition, a music competition for young musicians bearing his name, which still also continues today; spearheading musical and creative output and camaraderie, through work, performances, and a cascade of music effects that stay long after – including through the finding and talent-spotting of some of the finest young musicians today.

Music School Creation

Menuhin’s educational efforts also extended directly to education itself.

In 1962, he started a music school for gifted young musicians in Surrey. Designed to provide a rich and nurturing environment for the musically talented, it was unique in both its progressive as well as very early and egalitarian approach.

Offering scholarships to those who could not otherwise afford to school there, the Menuhin school also created holistically educational settings for its students and better to spur musical, academic, and even extra-curricular development. 

Educational Material – Performance and Written

Menuhin’s educational efforts extended also into writings and recordings which range from Violin: Six Lessons with Yehudi Menuhin (London, 1971), The Violin (Paris, 1996), and Life Class: Thoughts, Exercises, [and] Reflections of an Itinerant Violinist (London, 1986).

Educational recordings on the EMI label also include ‘Instruments of the Orchestra’, in which Menuhin narrates a child and young adult’s guide to all the instruments of the symphonic orchestra, organized, for example, by type, function, sound, timbre, and work.

Further Information

For more on bespoke violin and educational material – including lessons and performances – modeled on Menuhin’s view of performing, teaching, and learning, please contact us for an enquiry using the contact form.

By Orion Music and Arts Cambridge, MA, 2023-2024

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