Ginette Neveu

Born into a musical Parisian family in 1919, violinist Ginette Neveu blazed a rapid path to classical stardom, making her public debut at age seven performing Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (1867). She devoted herself to studying music under the tutelage of figures like composer George Enescu and influential educator and conductor Nadia Boulanger. Neveu achieved fame in 1935 at 15 after winning the prestigious Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw, which launched her international touring career. World War II sidelined her from performing much outside France until 1946, but she quickly made up for lost time, touring widely, often accompanied by her brother Jean-Paul on piano. Three years later, on a trip bound for New York, she died in a plane crash in the Azores. Her scant yet highly prized recordings of Brahms, Sibelius and Ravel have remained in print ever since, their fiery intensity enduring decades later.