Violinist

As concertmaster for the orchestra that recorded the soundtrack for the movie "Psycho," classical violinist Israel Baker helped create a piece of pop culture that is regarded as one of Hollywood's most terrifying. He led the piercing attack of the violins that accompanies the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film's chilling shower scene. He "was a renowned violinist and concertmaster in the Hollywood studio system" and was heard on dozens of movie scores, said Jon Burlingame, a film and music historian.

So what would Beethoven drive? I'm not sure that putting anyone that headstrong behind the wheel would be a great idea. He'd likely scream at his publisher on his cellphone while driving, impatiently tailgate, cut people off. He'd speed for sure and never, ever signal. But Orange County is car country and Thursday night at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Joshua Bell handed over the keys of his new Porsche to the composer for a high-octane spin of his "Coriolan" Overture, Violin Concerto and Fourth Symphony.

Alexander Knecht unpacked his violin and sheet music and slipped into Marvin Baker's dimly lit hospital room. "Hello, Mr. Baker, is it OK if I play a hymn for you?" he asked brightly. The 81-year-old patient, bedridden by a series of illnesses and unable to respond, stared blankly at the wall. Knecht lifted his bow and played "Rock of Ages," the lilting sounds swiftly displacing the room's cold quiet. "I hope you liked that," he said. Silence.

As concertmaster for the orchestra that recorded the soundtrack for the movie "Psycho," classical violinist Israel Baker helped create a piece of pop culture that is regarded as one of Hollywood's most terrifying. He led the piercing attack of the violins that accompanies the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film's chilling shower scene. He "was a renowned violinist and concertmaster in the Hollywood studio system" and was heard on dozens of movie scores, said Jon Burlingame, a film and music historian.

As afternoon turned to evening July 8, Robert Alan Korda seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The former L.A. Philharmonic violinist left his Van Nuys home about 3 p.m. but never showed up at the Hollywood studio where he was scheduled to work that evening. His family made frantic calls to police and hospitals and to his cellphone provider. When they received little clue as to his whereabouts, they turned to the Internet as a last resort.

Violinist Pauline Kim, 19, of Duarte is one of 12 semifinalists in the Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco this weekend. The winner will receive $9,000, one of the largest string competition prizes in the world. Kim, who studies at The Juilliard School in New York, said playing the violin is a "very divine and spiritual thing. When I'm playing music, I feel like I am almost one with God. You're playing something that transcends what we see and live by."

Sandor "Alexander" Vegh, 84, European violinist, conductor and interpreter of Mozart. Born in an area of Hungary that is now part of Romania, he took violin lessons as a child and then studied at the Budapest Academy of Music. He founded the Hungarian String Quartet in 1934 and the Vegh Quartet in 1940; the latter remained active until 1980. Vegh's major recordings include the complete Mozart quartets. He conducted some of Europe's finest orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic.

The ever-rewarding Chamber Music in Historic Sites series ended Sunday, in a site in Pacific Palisades that was literally a cliffhanger. Noted architect Ray Kappe designed this compact, vertical house, laid out on a steep hillside as a series of intersecting planes. Surfaces of wood, reinforced concrete and thick glass flooring cohere in an inviting, warm-spirited modernist scheme.

Len Lesser Veteran character actor Len Lesser, 88, a veteran character actor best known for his recurring role in the 1990s as Uncle Leo on the hit NBC-TV comedy "Seinfeld," died Wednesday in Burbank, publicist Laura Stegman said. He had pneumonia and cancer. Starting in the early 1950s, Lesser built a reputation for mostly playing the heavy in dozens of movies and hundreds of TV appearances, while nurturing his love of the theater. But the bald, hook-nosed actor took his career to a higher plane once he established himself as Jerry Seinfeld's annoying Uncle Leo with his trademark greeting "Hello!"

The recital by violinist Sidney Weiss and pianist Jean Weiss scheduled for Sunday at the South Coast Community Auditorium in Irvine has been moved to Feb. 1, 1988.

John Neville Canadian actor and stage director John Neville, 86, a British-born Canadian actor and stage director who played the title role in Terry Gilliam's 1988 film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and had a recurring role in "The X-Files" TV series in the 1990s, died Saturday in Toronto. He had Alzheimer's disease. His death was announced by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, where he had worked as an artistic director in the 1980s. Neville appeared in dozens of movies, television shows and theater productions during a career that spanned six decades.

A recital without an encore is like a meal without dessert. Orchestral concerts usually skip dessert, unless the orchestra is on tour. (On the road, Valery Gergiev, conductor of the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, always has five or six popular short pieces ready.) Sometimes encores are given after a concerto. Some conductors, however, think it's rude to make an orchestra (and maestro) wait while a soloist basks in extra applause. In fact, the whole art and practice of the encore is rather complicated, and subject to debate among performers.

Manuel Galban Award-winning Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban, 80, a Grammy-winning Cuban guitarist who rose to international fame as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club, died Thursday of a heart attack in Havana. Born in 1931 in Gibara, in the eastern province of Holguin, Galban made his professional debut in 1944, according to his publicist. In 1963 he joined Los Zafiros, Spanish for "The Sapphires," which fused styles as varied as bolero, calypso and rock with Cuban filin music, which comes from the word "feeling.

Nigel Armstrong, a 21-year-old recent graduate of L.A.'s Colburn School, has made the violin finals in classical music's equivalent of the Olympics — the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia that's best known stateside for Van Cliburn's triumph during the inaugural running in 1958. Americans celebrated it as a victory over the Soviets on their own turf during those Cold War days, and Cliburn, a pianist from Texas, returned to a ticker tape parade on Manhattan's Broadway and lionization on the cover of Time magazine.

Resplendent in a Dior sleeveless kimono, Givenchy leopard-print tights and funky Rick Owens boots, the violin virtuoso Hahn-Bin brings to mind an ultra-chic Buddhist monk as he strolls through the Hammer Museum in Westwood. His eyes and lips, outlined in black, give his face a mask-like delicacy, and his tuft of black hair sweeps upward like a candle flame. But despite his obvious flair for the dramatic, there's nothing remotely standoff-ish about the 22-year-old musician and performance artist, who'll appear Thursday night in "The Five Poisons," a semi-staged cultural mash-up of works ranging from Chopin's "Nocturne #20" to John Cage's "In a Landscape," in the Billy Wilder Theater.

I don't recall the exact date that Robert Gupta, a Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist, first told me about his plan. But at some point after Gupta befriended my buddy Nathaniel Ayers, roughly three years ago, he said he wanted to give free concerts at mental health clinics. Busy lives often get in the way of good intentions, and I wondered whether a rising phenom like Gupta ? who joined the Phil in 2007 at the age of 19, and that's not a typo ? would find time for charity. But on Monday afternoon, Gupta was exactly where he had promised he would be. He was about to give his third in an occasional series of matinee concerts in the basement of the L.A. County Department of Mental Health clinic on Maple Street, across from the police station on skid row, and the small auditorium was packed with mental health workers and their clients.

British violinist Nigel Kennedy, who's touring the United States (he was booked for a weekend stint with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington), signed an unusual record contract with Angel/EMI Records. The five-year, $500,000 deal calls for recordings not only of a classical concerto or two, but also jazz and even rock music.

"Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 4." Frank Peter Zimmermann, soloist. Angel/EMI. DDD. The 21-year-old Zimmermann presents himself in this debut recording as a violinist with ample technique, lush tone and a broad vibrato. After a while, the latter tends to weigh down this airy music, noticeably in the Third Concerto's magical Adagio. Joerg Faerber respectfully leads the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra--not the greatest band, but one decent enough to provide a sympathetic accompaniment.

Eugene Fodor, a swashbuckling violin virtuoso who was a media darling of classical music in the 1970s but whose substance abuse fractured a fairytale career, has died. He was 60. Fodor died of liver disease Feb. 26 at his home in Arlington, Va., said his wife, Susan Davis. He had struggled with addictions to alcohol, cocaine and heroin, she said. At 24, Fodor became the first American to win top honors on violin at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974.

Len Lesser Veteran character actor Len Lesser, 88, a veteran character actor best known for his recurring role in the 1990s as Uncle Leo on the hit NBC-TV comedy "Seinfeld," died Wednesday in Burbank, publicist Laura Stegman said. He had pneumonia and cancer. Starting in the early 1950s, Lesser built a reputation for mostly playing the heavy in dozens of movies and hundreds of TV appearances, while nurturing his love of the theater. But the bald, hook-nosed actor took his career to a higher plane once he established himself as Jerry Seinfeld's annoying Uncle Leo with his trademark greeting "Hello!"