First Violin
Arthur Zadinsky has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1991. Before moving to the Seattle area in 1988, Zadinsky was Assistant Concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony, Long Beach Opera and Glendale Symphony. Subsequently, he performed as First Violin in Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and Northwest Chamber Orchestra. He was First Violinist with Miami Philharmonic at age 18 and First Violinist with the Canton Symphony at age 13. He has also performed on American Idol in Hollywood, and at the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, California.
Zadinsky has performed in several of the Seattle Symphony’s Chamber Series programs, including three separate concerts featuring works for violin and piano by George Enescu, Paul Schoenfield and Darius Milhaud, in collaboration with pianist Oana Rusu Tomai.
Active as a recording musician, Zadinsky was the solo violinist for the motion picture Apartment Zero and New Age artist Michael Gettel’s 1994 album, The Key; conductor for 1998’s Privilegio de Amor by Mihares; and concertmaster for albums by Monna Bell, Simone and Jordi. He recorded albums with David Benoit, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Mathis, Neil Diamond, Olivia Newton-John and Bill Meyers, among many others; was a session musician at Universal, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., MGM/Sony and other studios in Hollywood, for hundreds of film and television scores; and has performed on most Seattle Symphony recordings since 1991.
As a young musician, Zadinsky knew he wanted to be a professional when he heard a performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra by the Cleveland Orchestra at a community concert in Canton, Ohio; his choice was reaffirmed several years later when he was fortunate to accompany Henryk Szeryng in a performance of Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Ohio-born Zadinsky received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. His private violin teachers included Donald Weilerstein, Steven Staryk, Paul Biss, George Zazofsky, Louis Krasner, Richard Burgin and Yoko Matsuda; chamber music coaching with Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, Gunther Schuller and William Kroll; and conducting studies with Frederick Fennell. His awards include full scholarships to the University of Miami and CalArts; Magna cum laude, U.M.; and the Henri Kohn Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Instrumentalist, Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood), awarded by Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa in 1976.
