What is Yehudi Menuhin?
[[File:Yehudi Menuhin 1976.jpg|thumb|Yehudi Menuhin (1976)]] '''Yehudi Menuhin''', Baron Menuhin, [[Order of Merit|OM]], [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]] (22 April 1916 in [[New York City]] - 12 March 1999 in [[Berlin]]) was a [[violin]]ist and [[conducting|conductor]]. As a child he was one of the most extraordinary violin [[prodigy|prodigies]] there has ever been. He was one of the greatest violinists of the [[20th century]]. In later life he also performed a lot as conductor. He was a very influential teacher who started a school, the [[Yehudi Menuhin School]], near [[London]], for musically gifted children. He was born an [[USA|American]] citizen, but then became [[Switzerland|Swiss]] in 1970, and then took on [[United Kingdom|British]] nationality in 1985. == Life == === Early years === [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12786, Bruno Walter und Yehudin Menuhin.jpg|thumb|left|Yehudi Menuhin with [[Bruno Walter]] (1931)]] Yehudi Menuhin was born in [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. His parents were [[Russia]]n [[Jew]]s who came from what is now [[Belarus]]. His sisters were Hephzibah Menuhin who became a [[piano|pianist]], and Yaltah Menuhin who became a pianist, [[painter]] and [[poet]]. His father, Moshe Menuhin, had been a [[rabbi]]nical student and writer who oppposed [[Zionism]]. Menuhin had his first violin lessons just after the age of four in [[San Francisco]] with the violin teacher Sigmund Anker. He immediately showed extraordinary talent. He continued to study with [[Louis Persinger]], and performed with the [[San Francisco Symphony Orchestra]] in 1924. and in New York in 1926. He performed in [[Paris]] in February 1927, after which he studied with the [[Romania]]n [[composer]] and violinist [[George Enescu]]. When he played [[Beethoven]]’s Violin [[Concerto]] with the conductor [[Fritz Busch]] in New York in [[November]] 1927 he immediately became world famous. He not only had the most amazing [[Skill|technique]] but he also understood the music just as well as any grown up musicia