Raphael Bronstein

Raphael Bronstein (1895-1988) was a world class violinist and violin professor.

He was born in a Jewish family in Vilnius, Lithuania and studied violin with Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. According to his obituary in the "New York Times" (5 Nov. 1988), he arrived in the United States in 1923 to take a job as an assistant to Auer. Mr. Bronstein had one daughter, Ariana Bronne, who teaches at the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Bronstein's teaching career spanned 65 years and was responsible for a large number of the current generation of leading violin teachers and performers, Elmar Oliveira among them. He taught at the Hartt School in Hartford, Boston University, Manhattan School of Music (http://www.msmnyc.edu), Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is remembered annually at the Manhattan School of Music with a Commencement Award in his honor (http://www.msmnyc.edu/ouralumni/awards/)

He founded and conducted the Bronstein Symphonietta in 1949. He wrote the "Science of Violin Playing."