Violinists - the other six

Carmel Malignaggi  Malignaggi has worked with B B King and several others.

Arnold Eidus (1922-2013) Eidus's father was a Jewish immigrant from Latvia and a violinist. His mother who was born in New York, played piano. A child prodigy, Eidus made his performance debut at Carnegie Hall aged 11. He studied at the Juilliard under Louis Persinger (who also taught Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern and Ruggiero Ricci). He met his future wife, piano student Doris Dresher, at Juilliard.

Eidus was a versatile session accompanist who recorded and performed in the classical, jazz, pop, rhythm & blues and Latin genres. He recorded with Perry Como, Coleman Hawkins, Lena Horne, Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Patti Austin, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Edgar Winter and countless others over a career that spanned six decades. In 1945, as part of the American Broadcasting Corporation's orchestra, he was a featured soloist in a New York recording of Paul Whiteman's re-orchestration of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He recorded his classical repertoire for the RCA Victor, HMV, Phillips, and Stradivari record labels.

In 1946 Eidus became the first American violinist to win the coveted Jacques Thibaud Award in Paris. In the 1950s, he emerged as one of the most sought-after commercial violinists in New York, working in TV, radio and films, on the concert stage and in recording sessions. His classical repertoire included works by Kodály, Beethoven, Elgar, Copland, de Falla, Sibelius, Brahms and others.

In the US, Eidus performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Chicago Symphony under Izler Solomon, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Antal Dorati. In Europe Eidus performed as soloist with the London Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, the Budapest Radio Orchestra, and at other prestigious venues.

Eidus served as Concertmaster for the American Broadcasting Company, performing on and directing a weekly chamber music series.

In 1950, Eidus and cellist George Ricci founded the Stradivari Records label. 

Guy Lumia (1937-1988) Of Italian heritage Lumia began studying violin at the age of seven. In 1948, he was accepted to study at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 1952, he began his studies at the Eastman School of Music, with André de Ribaupierre and Joseph Knitzer, where he graduated with honours, obtaining both his baccalaureate and master's degrees, along with the certificate of performer. and the artist diploma. He also studied with Raphael Bronstein at the Mannes School of Music in New York.

In the 1950s, he was a member of the first violin section of the Rochester Philharmonic while in Eastman. From 1952 to 1966, Lumia was also active with the Greenwich Piano Quartet. Another chamber music activity of the 1960s was the Long Island Chamber Ensemble. In 1961, he was a Fulbright scholar studying with Rene Benedetti in Paris. Lumia was a finalist in the Paganini Violin Competition in Genoa and a semifinalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He later studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He studied more with Yehudi Menuhin in London.

Lumia was a concertmaster with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra . In the early 1970s, he toured Europe as a soloist. In 1973, he joined the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut as a violin professor. In the 1984-1985 season, he was selected as a concertmaster with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he alternated with Raymond Gniewek. He continued with the Met for four seasons. Then, tragically, he died in New York City at just 51 years old due to complications from Type 1 Diabetes mellitus.

Raoul Poliakin (1917-1981) Poliakin was an Egyptian-born American arranger and conductor of popular orchestral music. He appeared on countless albums, including those of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Wes Montgomery.

Born in Cairo, he received his musical education at the Sorbonne, where he studied violin with Rene Benedetti and conducted with Pierre Monteux. In 1941, he emigrated to the United States, where he became a member of several major symphony orchestras, playing under Leopold Stokowski, Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner, Monteux and Ernst Ansermet.

As assistant conductor to Andre Kostelanetz, Poliakin produced a series of albums for Everest Records in the 1950s. As overall music director, he planned the classical repertoire and supervised the actual recording sessions. In addition, he conducted his own 54r piece orchestra and twenty voice chorale, The Poliakin Orchestra and Chorale, which recorded arrangements of light orchestral music.

In addition, he was a licensed amateur radio (ham radio) operator under the call sign K2AOS.

Gene Orloff (1922-2009) Orloff was a violinist concertmaster, arranger and contractor. The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from the piano and try to play it. He was only three at the time. By the time he was five, he was playing recitals in his home city of Boston. Later, he was playing concerts at venues which included performances at Carnegie Hall and with the Boston Symphony. Having won a scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music, he left due to the schedule and found work as a commercial musician and, on occasion, was working for 15 hours per day.

During his time, the artists that Orloff performed with included Meat Loaf, The Bee Gees, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. His daughter Marcy said that one of his favourites was Van McCoy.

In the late 1940s, he was in Neal Hefti's orchestra on a recording date backing Charlie Parker and with Nat King Cole's trio/The Muleskinners, backing Woody Herman on vocals.

Working under Van McCoy's direction, he handled the arrangements for the horns and strings on the Faith Hope & Charity album by Faith Hope and Charity which was released in 1970. He also played on the Disco Baby album by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony which was released in 1975 and featured "The Hustle". He was also on Judy Collins Judith (1975).

Harry Cykman (1921-1994) Cykman was a child prodigy, making his debut as a violinist in 1930 (at age 9, but for promotional purposes, a year was shaved from his birth date). Despite his classical roots, as a working session musician, Cykman was often heard on jazz recordings, including those of organist Shirley Scott, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, Billie Holiday, and saxophonist Grover Washington, as well as Judy Collins (1975's Judith), composer Don Sebesky and Rupert Holmes (his 1974 debut album, Widescreen).