Frenkel, Stefan.

Stefan Frenkel (1902-1979), violinist. Born in Warsaw, he had established an international reputation as a soloist by the late 1920's. He was especially well-known for performing works of contemporary composers, notably Schnabel, Ysaÿe, Hindemith, Prokofieff, Bartók, and Weill. In 1929-30, he arranged seven songs from Die Dreigroschenoper (music by Kurt Weill) for violin and piano. Forced to leave Germany in 1933, he served briefly as concertmaster in the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande before emigrating to the United States in 1937. He served as the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for many years and played in other orchestras as well, before settling into a teaching career at Princeton.