Ida Haendel
The Grande Dame of the Violin

“The distinctive quality she brings to her performance is soul. Just listen to the intensity, the passion, the eloquent phrasing and the rich, brooding tone, and you will experience an emotional frisson of devastating proportions.” So wrote Geoffrey Norris in London’s Daily Telegraph, distilling in just two sentences, the essence of the art of Ida Haendel. Though written recently, it is typical of the extraordinary effect Haendel’s performances has had upon generations of concert goers.
Ida Haendel was a child prodigy, but unlike many prodigies, she didn’t burn out. Quite the contrary, her flame grew ever stronger as the child matured into a fully-formed artist while still in her teens. Competition wins opened the doors to study with such esteemed pedagogues as Carl Flesch and Georges Enescu. With her incandescent performances of Enescu’s challenging Sonata for Violin and Piano, Ms. Haendel has paid tribute to a teacher she has described as “spellbinding---one of the world’s great geniuses.”

Ida Haendel has performed with most of the world’s renowned orchestras under numerous star conductors on several continents. Her major label recordings have earned critical accolades –particularly her unsurpassed performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto which elicited a fan letter from its composer.

From the moment the three-year-old picked up her father’s violin and played note-perfectly a song her mother had been singing in another room, Ida Haendel has never stopped performing. She supplants performances with master classes which are filled with wisdom and inspiration. Her protestations that she doesn’t really want “to tell anybody how to play” should not be taken seriously. Results prove otherwise.
Ida Haendel has been traversing concert stages for more than 70 years and has no intention of slowing down. A new DVD of her performance opening the 2009 Miami International Piano Festival with the collaboration of Serbian pianist Misha Dacic is slated for release by VAI this fall. It amply demonstrates that Ida Haendel has lost none of her ability to connect with listeners in a very special way.

Mrs. Handel lives in Miami, Florida and is represented by Patrons of Exceptional Artists.

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