User:Ninian1/sandbox

Leonid Bolotine

Leonid Bolotine was a violinist and guitarist. He was born in Poltava, the Ukraine, in 1901, and after local violin studies, he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory as one of the youngest students of Leopold Auer. He arrived in the United States in 1924, and he continued his violin studies with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He became an assistant concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, and a violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the CBS Symphony, and other ensembles. He eventually settled in New York City. He played instruments by David Tecchler and Paolo Maggini.

Bolotine did not restrict his musical activities to the violin. In the 1930's he was a member of the Theremin Electro-Ensemble in which he played the Theremin cello. The group -- which was later called Electrio -- was heard weekly on the CBS radio network. However, Mr. Bolotine was best known as a guitar teacher. He took up the guitar as a hobby in the 1940's, and taught himself. By the 1960's, he was freelancing as a guitarist, mandolinist, and lutenist, playing in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and in other New York ensembles. On April 30, 1963, he performed at the Kennedy White House. The Consort Players and Basil Rathbone presented an evening of Elizabethan poetry and music at a State Dinner. Bolotine taught at the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan from 1958 until 1984, and established the guitar department there. In 1975, he founded the American Institute of the Guitar in Manhattan, a guitar school that now has 200 students. Leonid Bolotine, 87, Violinist and Guitarist Published: November 29, 1988

Leonid Bolotine, a violinist and guitarist, died of heart failure on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87 years old.