Editing Isaac Stern (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Isaac Stern 1979b.jpg|thumb|Isaac Stern in 1975]]
The son of Solomon and Clara Stern,<ref name="Kozinn">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/nyregion/violinist-isaac-stern-dies-at-81-led-efforts-to-save-carnegie-hall.html?pagewanted=all | title=Violinist Isaac Stern Dies at 81; Led Efforts to Save Carnegie Hall | work=The New York Times | author=Allan Kozinn | date=2001-09-23 | access-date=2015-04-12}}</ref> Isaac Stern was born in [[Kremenets]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] (now [[Ukraine]]), into a [[Jewish]] family. He was 14 months old when his family moved to [[San Francisco]] in 1921. Both his parents were musical and his mother, who had studied at the [[Saint Petersburg Conservatory]], began teaching him the [[piano]] when he was six before switching her son to the [[violin]] when he was eight. In 1928, Stern’s parents enrolled him at the [[San Francisco Conservatory of Music]], where he studied until 1931 before going on to study briefly in New York with [[Louis Persinger]].<ref name="guard">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/sep/24/guardianobituaries|title=Isaac Stern|author=K Robert Schwarz|date=24 September 2001|work=The Guardian|access-date=30 January 2018|location=London}}</ref> He returned to the San Francisco Conservatory to study for five years with [[Naoum Blinder]], the concertmaster of the [[San Francisco Symphony]], to whom he said he owed the most.<ref name=mustimes>{{cite web | title=Isaac Stern 1920–2001 | url=http://www.musicaltimes.co.uk/archive/0104/stern.html | work=The Musical Times | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929025246/http://www.musicaltimes.co.uk/archive/0104/stern.html | archive-date=29 September 2006 | df=dmy-all }}</ref><!--Source please: "He felt proud to have been a student of [[Nahum Blinder]]."--> At his public début on February 18, 1936, aged 15, he played [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns']] [[Violin Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)|Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor]] with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of [[Pierre Monteux]]. Reflecting on his background, Stern once memorably quipped that cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Soviet Russia drew from the same city:

:: "They send us their Jews from [[Odessa]], and we send them our Jews from Odessa."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/11/arts/in-musical-odessa-playing-on-for-the-love-of-it.html | title=In Musical Odessa, Playing On for the Love of It | work=The New York Times | author=Michael Specter | date=1994-04-11 | access-date=2015-04-12}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Stern was rejected from military service due to flat feet. He then joined the [[United Service Organizations]] and performed for US troops. During one such performance on [[Guadalcanal]], a Japanese soldier, mesmerized by his playing, sneaked into the audience of US personnel listening to his performance before sneaking back out.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Legendary Violinist Isaac Stern's Legacy Lives On After 100 Years|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2020/07/19/892757782/legendary-violinist-isaac-sterns-legacy-lives-on-after-100-years|access-date=2021-08-29|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=April 12|first=CHRIS PASLES|last2=Pt|first2=2000 12 Am|date=2000-04-12|title='Stern' Goes Beyond the Usual Musical Profile|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-apr-12-ca-18541-story.html|access-date=2021-08-29|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref>

Stern toured the [[Soviet Union]] in 1951, the first American violinist to do so.  In 1967, Stern stated his refusal to return to the USSR until the Soviet regime allowed artists to enter and leave the country freely.  His only visit to Germany was in 1999, for a series of master classes, but he never performed publicly in Germany.<ref name="Kozinn" />

Stern was married three times.  His first marriage, in 1948 to ballerina [[Nora Kaye]], ended in divorce after 18 months, but the two of them remained friends.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20070235,00.html | title=Director Herb Ross and Ex-Ballerina Nora Kaye Know What a Turning Point Is | work=People | author=Kristin McMurran | date=1978-02-20 | access-date=2015-04-12}}</ref>  On August 17, 1951, he married Vera Lindenblit (1927–2015). They had three children together, including conductors [[Michael Stern (conductor)|Michael]] and [[David Stern (conductor)|David Stern]] and also Rabbi Shira Stern, one of the first female rabbis in the USA. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1994 after 43 years. In 1996, Stern married his third wife, Linda Reynolds.  His third wife, his three children, and his five grandchildren survived him.<ref name="Kozinn"/>

Stern died September 22, 2001, of heart failure in a Manhattan, New York, hospital after an extended stay.<ref name="Kozinn"/>