Yuri Beliavsky
Yuri Beliavsky was born in Moscow, Russia, during the Soviet Era. He studied violin with Professor Abraham Yampolsky and chamber music with the great Russian pianist Maria Yudina at the Gnesin State Music Institute in Moscow. Mr. Beliavsky was a member of the Grand Symphony Orchestra of Soviet Radio and Television, and later the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He taught at Jerusalem’s Rubin Academy, and performed as soloist with both the Moscow Radio and the Israeli Radio. Between 1972 and 1974, he made several recordings with the Jerusalem Symphony, among them Mozart’s Concerto No. 3 in G-Major, K. 216, Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Bruch’s Kol Nidre, which was recorded just before the Yom Kippur War.
From 1975 until 2005, Mr. Beliavsky was a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and was on the teaching faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he often appeared in recitals with his son, pianist Daniel Beliavsky. In 1983, Mr. Beliavsky recorded Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra with the XX-Century Ensemble.
In 1986-87, Mr. Beliavsky created a series of special programs for WFMR, the Classical Radio Station in Milwaukee, called “An Historical Perspective on the Art of Violin Playing Since the Beginning of the Recording Era.” These 33 programs were broadcast during the 1986 and 1987 seasons during prime time and were very well received. One of the highlights of these programs was the first international broadcast of a previously unknown Russian recording of ten year old Jascha Heifetz made in 1911.
Yuri Beliavsky also gives lectures on the “Art of Violin Playing.” Mr. Beliavsky has given these lectures throughout the world, such as at the International Workshops in Austria and at the Gnesin Institute in Moscow, Russia. He broadcast these programs weekly on Davidzon Radio in New York, and presently continues to give these lectures through the New York Public Library system around New York City.