Ida Haendel was a British violinist, born in 1928 in Chelm. She was the younger of two daughters of Nathan and Fela Haendel; her father was a portrait painter and amateur violinist. She began studying violin at the age of three with Mieczyslaw Michalowicz in Warsaw. Two years later, she received the Bronislaw Huberman Prize for performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and in 1935 she became the youngest participant in the first International Wieniawski Violin Competition.
Haendel later studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu. She made her London debut in 1937 with an orchestra conducted by Henry Wood, and her family soon settled in Britain. She toured internationally after the war, including in the United States in 1946–47 and the Soviet Union in 1966. In 1952, she moved from England to Canada. In 1973, she became the first Western musician permitted to give concerts in China.
Her performances were noted for technical command, clear intonation, and classical interpretations. Jean Sibelius and William Walton praised her performances of their violin concertos, and contemporary composers dedicated several works to her. Her extensive discography covered nearly the entire classical and Romantic violin repertoire. In 1970, she published her autobiography, Woman with Violin.
Haendel made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1993 and continued performing into old age, appearing at the Paganini International Festival in Wroclaw in 2003 and at a festival in 2010. In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II appointed her a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She received honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music in London in 2000 and McGill University in 2006, and was awarded the Sibelius Medal. She died in Miami on June 30, 2020.