Death of star violin teacher, 98

Death of star violin teacher, 98

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norman lebrecht

January 16, 2019

The violin educator Kató Havas died on the last day of 2018, at a Biblical age.

Raised in the Budapest of Bartok and Kodaly, she made a Carnegie Hall debut in 1938 and, while raising a family, developed a New Approach to Violin Players which, with Yehudi Menuhin’s endorsement, was translated into a dozen languages. She went on to address Stage Fright: Its Causes and Cures but her principal concern was player injury – how to protect people who play violin and viola from serious physical impairment.

She was a treasure to her profession.

Comments

  • Ricardo says:

    Fantastic lady. Rest in peace!

  • Simon Scott says:

    A charlatan if there ever was

    • Luigi Nonono says:

      She taught a way of playing that is physically comfortable, based on gypsy technique. There’s nothing charlatan about that.

    • John Spence says:

      Every enlightened being who ever came to this earth to innovate and inspire has been mocked as a ‘charlatan’ by the pedestrian and the banal. . .

  • Carolyn Nash says:

    Most inspiring lady who gave me the confidence to believe in my playing and teaching and enjoy my career . Life changing course in Oxford Rip KH

  • Simon Scott – how disrespectful to make that type of comment on an obituary thread. It’s in very poor taste.

    • Simon Scott says:

      Dead or alive.
      The truth is the truth

      • Stewart H Holder says:

        I, after surviving a nasty car accident in 1994, have Kato Havas to thank for helping me rebuild my life. I took up the violin again after 35 years or so and with her help now play the violin with a beautiful sound (not my comments, but those of other violinists). Doctors told me, after diagnosing moderate brain damage, that I would never work or be the same again.
        This (with the help of my wife and Kato Havas),, I have proved to be incorrect.

        Simon Scott have you ever attended a workshop of Kato’s in Oxford if so in what way did you not derive any benefit ?

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