21 Facts About Fredell Lack

Fredell Lack was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the oldest of three children of Jewish Eastern European immigrants, Abram I Lack and Sarah Stillman Lack.

Fredell Lack began violin lessons at age six, studying with Tosca Berger.

When Fredell was 10, she moved with her family to Houston, Texas.

At 12, Fredell Lack was accepted into the New York City studio of the legendary violinist and pedagogue Louis Persinger, whose other students included such artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, and Ruggiero Ricci.

Fredell Lack moved to New York and completed her pre-college schooling at the Bentley School while continuing her violin lessons with Persinger.

Fredell Lack continued studying violin with Persinger there and was deeply influenced by her study of chamber music with Felix Salmond.

Fredell Lack received the Diploma from Juilliard at age 21.

Fredell Lack had a long-lasting career during which she made dozens of concert tours worldwide, including more than twenty to Europe alone.

Fredell Lack soloed with the orchestras of New York, Pittsburgh, Stockholm, Houston, Baltimore, Rotterdam, San Antonio, Oslo, and Kansas City, and with the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Royal Philharmonic, RIAS of Berlin, the BBC Symphony, the Halle Orchestra, and others.

Fredell Lack made her New York recital debut in 1943 at The Town Hall, performing concertos by Vivaldi and Dvorak, a sonata by Dohnanyi, and pieces by Shostakovich, Poulenc, Ysaye, and Wieniawski.

Fredell Lack commenced artistic study with Ivan Galamian, widely regarded among violinists as the greatest pedagogical influence of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Fredell Lack performed frequently in master classes with the Romanian violinist George Enescu, and often traveled to Boston to play new works for the composition studio of Nadia Boulanger.

In 1947, Fredell Lack was selected to be the first concertmaster of the prestigious Little Orchestra Society of New York, a position she held for two seasons.

That year, Fredell Lack began performing solos weekly that were broadcast to a national audience over the Mutual radio network.

Also in 1951, Fredell Lack moved to Houston, Texas, where her husband had been offered a professorship.

Fredell Lack began a highly successful Young Audiences program in Houston, which brings classical music to schoolchildren.

In 1959, Fredell Lack began teaching violin at the University of Houston, where she remained on the faculty for 50 years before retiring in 2009.

Fredell Lack taught numerous sessions at the Meadowmount School of Music, an annual summer program in Upstate New York that was founded and for many years was directed by Fredell Lack's former mentor Ivan Galamian.

Fredell Lack was married to Ralph Eichhorn, a gastroenterologist, from 1947 until his death in 2014.

Fredell Lack did not use her married name, Eichhorn, professionally.

Fredell Lack died in Houston on August 20,2017, aged 95.