Boris Kroyt

Boris Kroyt (3 June 1897 – 15 November 1969) was a classical violinist and violist. He was the violist of the Budapest String Quartet from 1936 until the ensemble disbanded in 1967. Kroyt was born to a Jewish-Ukrainian family in Odessa, but spent his early life and career in Germany where he had been a child prodigy violinist. From the outbreak of World War II until his death at the age of 72, he lived in the United States and had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1944. His father, a tobacco merchant, had been born in Olyka. Kroyt had an older sister Bertha (born in 1893) and a younger brother Miron (Meyer-Itzhok, born in 1902). The family's apartment in the Jewish ghetto of Odessa was a meeting place for young radicals including Leon Trotsky and other members of the Bronstein family who were cousins of Kroyt's father. The Kroyts rented out one of their rooms to an art student who was also an amateur violinist. The four-year old Boris would listen to him and attempt to sing along with his playing. Taken with the child's music ability, he made him a violin out of cardboard. He later bought Kroyt his first real violin and persuaded a violinist friend of his to give the child proper lessons.