Born in Budapest shortly before World War II, Gy\u00f6rgy Pauk suffered the loss of both his parents in the Holocaust. He spent the remaining years of the War in the care of his grandmother in the Spartan confines of the Budapest Ghetto. Showing extraordinary musical talent from an early age, he began to learn the violin and was admitted to the Liszt Academy at the age of only 13.<\/p>\n
After winning several international violin competitions, Pauk defected from Soviet-controlled Hungary, claiming asylum in Paris and becoming a \u2018stateless person\u2019 at the age of 22. He met and married his young Hungarian wife in Amsterdam. The couple moved to London on the advice of Yehudi Menuhin, gaining British citizenship in 1967.<\/p>\n
Over the course of more than 50 years, Gy\u00f6rgy Pauk became an internationally acclaimed concert violinist, appearing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and conductors, and making countless broadcasts and recordings.<\/p>\n
Now in his ninth decade, he is a renowned pedagogue based in London, and regarded as the foremost living \u2018torch-bearer\u2019 of the Hungarian Violin School, which traces its origins to the 19th century violinist, Josef Joachim, a close friend and collaborator of Mendelssohn, the Schumanns and Brahms.<\/p>\n
In this absorbing account of his professional and personal life, Gy\u00f6rgy Pauk tells us about many of the other instrumentalists, conductors, orchestras and composers he has known and worked with.<\/p>\n
Alongside his perpetual globe-trotting, Pauk has been a devoted husband (for more than 60 years), father and grandfather, and retains friendships across the world stretching back as far as the 1940s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the course of more than 50 years, Gy\u00f6rgy Pauk became an internationally acclaimed concert violinist, appearing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and conductors, and making countless broadcasts and recordings.<\/p>\n