Famed violist Emanuel Vardi, whose life story encompasses nearly a century of politics, art and music, died at his North Bend home on Jan. 29 at the age of 95. Born April 21, 1915 in Jerusalem, Vardi was accepted to New York’s The Juilliard School when he was 12 years old. He went on to be considered one of the greatest violists of the 20th century. He had a long concert career; worked in early television; and as a conductor, producer, arranger and commissioned fine artist.
“He was a true individual — musically and artistically — and he had a dose of “˜rebel’ in him, so he was always trying new things,” said Lenore Vardi, his wife of 26 years.
Vardi’s father was a respected violinist and violin teacher who started Emanuel on the violin when he was 2-1/2. He attended Juilliard, where he studied violin and viola under Edouard Dethier, but left when he was offered a job with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini.
During World War II, Vardi joined the U.S. Navy Band. At one point, Eleanor Roosevelt heard Vardi and whisked him to the White House to play viola for FDR. He is one of only two violists in the world to have given a solo recital at Carnegie Hall.
Fine art was a lifelong interest, so Vardi used his GI Bill to study at Florence’s Academia de Belle Arte from 1950-52. After his return to New York, he attended The Art Students League and the Brooklyn Museum Art School, but music was his primary focus.
Throughout his long solo career, Vardi recorded and performed with some of classical music’s biggest stars — Itzhak Perlman, Arthur Rubenstein, Van Cliburn, Vladimir Horowitz — as well as with popular musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone and Barbra Streisand. Vardi conducted orchestras for live performances, movie scores and television and was the South Dakota Symphony’s music director and conductor in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
After a wrist injury, then a fall that hurt his shoulder, Vardi stopped performing in 1993. He gave master classes throughout the world and served as music director of several festivals.
The music-themed paintings of Emanuel and Lenore Vardi surrounded the Greta Matassa Quartet at the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival, shortly after they moved to North Bend. Emanuel acted as musical advisor to the Vardi Chamber Players at this past summer’s Snoqualmie Valley Festival of Music while Lenore served as musical director and violinist.
Their art was the centerpiece of two recent shows in Waikiki and is currently featured at the Laurel Tree Gallery in Duvall and Revolution Gallery in Issaquah.
Along with his wife, Vardi is survived by his daughters, Andrea Smith of Fairfield, Iowa and Pauline Normand of Bonsecours, Quebec. Memorial gatherings are expected in the Seattle area in the coming weeks and in New York later this year.