In 1943, at age seven, Michael Rabin picked up a violin for the very first time. Within six months, the child had an astonishing command of the instrument, outstripping the teaching ability of his father - first chair violin with the New York Philharmonic. By age fifteen, Rabin had recorded for Columbia Records and had had his Carnegie Hall debut, with Isaac Stern in attendance. Rabin's auspicious beginnings ushered in more than a decade of brilliant performing and recording success. He would tour the world many times over in the 1950s and 60s, even behind the Iron Curtain. But years of painstaking practice, incessant touring, truncated schooling, and overbearing parents had taken their toll on the fragile artist, leaving him beset with anxiety, stage phobia, and dependent on barbiturates. His great career declined, but in the late 1960s shows signs of a revival. Tragically, at just 35 he was dead.
Author Biography
Anthony Feinstein is a widely published author and professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
