Babitz, Sol

Babitz was born on Oct. 11, 1911, in Brooklyn, NY; he was largely a self-taught violinist since leaving high school; his violin teachers included Carl Flesch in Berlin and Marcel Chailley in Paris; his interest in performance practice was aroused by the writing of Arnold Dolmetsch and encouraged by Igor Stravinsky, whose string parts Babitz edited for many years; he was a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1933-37, and then played with Hollywood studio orchestras until 1952; editor, International musician (1941-62); co-founded the Early Music Laboratory (EML) in 1948; he devoted much of his research to the problems of performance practices in baroque and classical music through studying and interpreting 17th and 18th century treatises, and he incorporated his findings in recordings, articles, and bulletins; died in 1982.

Biography

Babitz was born on Oct. 11, 1911, in Brooklyn, NY; he was largely a self-taught violinist since leaving high school; his violin teachers included Carl Flesch in Berlin and Marcel Chailley in Paris; his interest in performance practice was aroused by the writing of Arnold Dolmetsch and encouraged by Igor Stravinsky, whose string parts Babitz edited for many years; he was a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1933-37, and then played with Hollywood studio orchestras until 1952; editor, International musician (1941-62); co-founded the Early Music Laboratory (EML) in 1948; he devoted much of his research to the problems of performance practices in baroque and classical music through studying and interpreting 17th and 18th century treatises, and he incorporated his findings in recordings, articles, and bulletins; died in 1982.