Paul Zukofsky

Paul Zukofsky earned recognition as a violinist, conductor, and chamber musician chiefly through his dedication to contemporary repertoire, where he introduced and documented compositions by Wuorinen, Glass, Carter, Babbitt, and many additional twentieth-century figures. Even so, he demonstrated clear regard for Bach via his favorably received accounts of the solo sonatas and partitas.

Interest in music surfaced before he reached the age of three, and violin lessons began at four. Development proved swift, leading to instruction with Ivan Galamian at seven. Early public appearances included a debut recital at six and a first orchestral engagement at ten with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, followed three years later by a Carnegie Hall recital. By the mid-1960s he had established himself in solo and chamber contexts alike. In the latter field he formed a longstanding partnership with Gilbert Kalish that produced repeated joint performances and recordings. Conducting entered his activities as well, centered on chamber-scale groups and modern works. He served as music director of the Colonial Symphony Orchestra in Madison, New Jersey, from 1978 to 1987, a post that also encompassed performances of Beethoven, Mozart, and other standard composers. Leadership of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble began in the 1970s, with his formal appointment as conductor arriving in 1984.

From the 1970s onward he maintained ties to the Reykjavik College of Music in Iceland through frequent concerts and seminars. Lincoln Center appearances as conductor took place regularly during the final two decades of the twentieth century, often involving the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble or the Juilliard Orchestra.

A close friendship with Philip Glass led to Zukofsky’s participation in the 1976 recording of the opera Einstein on the Beach. The title role requires violin playing rather than singing. Glass wrote the Violin Concerto of 1986–1987 under Zukofsky’s influence and entrusted him with the premiere on April 5, 1987, given by the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies. In 1985 Zukofsky established the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Iceland, or Sinfoniuhljomsveit Aeskunnar. He directed the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California from 1992 to 1996.

Both conducting and violin engagements continued into the new century, resulting in more than sixty recordings for Sony, Camerata, CRI, and his own label CP2. As president of its parent company, Musical Observations, Inc., he supervised extensive releases on CP2 beginning in the early 1990s, many of them first recordings of works by Cage, Feldman, Xenakis, Glass, and other modern composers. Zukofsky died in Hong Kong in June 2017 at the age of seventy-three.