Abram Stern
Abram Stern (full name Abram Hananovich Stern) was a Soviet and American violinist, music teacher, and professor. He was born on March 19, 1919, in Narodychi. At the age of three, he moved with his family to Kyiv, where he lived for 68 years. He studied violin with David Bertie, a pupil of Leopold Auer.
In 1935, Stern received an honorary diploma at the First All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians. During the Second World War, he gave more than 500 performances in hospitals and military units as part of concert brigades. In 1945, after the war, he won first prize at the First All-Ukrainian Competition of Young Performers in Kyiv.
Stern became Bertie's assistant at the Kyiv Conservatory. From 1947 to 1989, he was concertmaster of the orchestra of the Taras Shevchenko Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, while also appearing frequently as a soloist and chamber musician. He was named an Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and received the Order of the Badge of Honour in 1951 and the Medal for Labor Valor in 1960.
In 1989, Stern emigrated to the United States with his family and lived in Los Angeles from 1990. Former students praised his exceptional musicianship and violin playing; violinist Alexander Kirillov called him the finest musician and violinist in their field, while violist Igor Polesitsky described him as a natural violin genius. A day in his honor was proclaimed during the Montecito Summer Music Festival. Stern died in Los Angeles on April 5, 2014.