Emanuel Borok

Emanuel Borok (July 15, 1944 – January 4, 2020) was an American violinist of Soviet descent.

Early life and education Born in Tashkent, then in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union, Borok grew up in a Jewish family that spoke Yiddish at home and during his early childhood moved to Riga, then part of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic. His father was a clock-maker. When Borok was five, his father's cousin, a piano teacher, had suggested that Borok learn an instrument like the piano; however, his father disliked that instrument and very much preferred the violin, which Borok took up. He studied violin in Riga with Voldemar Sturestep, who later taught Gidon Kremer, at the Emils Darzins School of Music. In 1959, he joined the Gnessin Music School in Moscow, where he continued his studies with Michael Garlitsky.

Career Borok won top prizes in the All-Russian Republic and All-Soviet Union violin competitions. He became second concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1971. He then left the Soviet Union, later saying that he wanted the freedom to choose the way he wanted to live "artistically, civilly, and humanistically. In the Soviet Union I had no life whatsoever. I was successful and well off, yet I had no future as a Jew, as an intellectual". He also taught at Boston University from 1976 to 1985. On the occasion of the violin's 400th "birthday", in 2009 Borok went to the town of its creation, Cremona, Italy, and presented it in concert for the people of the city, recorded in the documentary A Cremona con Amore. Borok served as Dallas Symphony concertmaster until his retirement in 2010.

Borok taught at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. From 2006 to 2013, he had a teaching position at the University of North Texas.

Personal life Borok died in Dallas on January 4, 2020, at age 75, from lung cancer. He was married twice: to Zinaida (née Shektman), with whom he had a son and a daughter, and to Marilyn until his death.