Musicאילונה פהר

Ilona Fehér

Ilona Fehér was a Hungarian-born violinist who became a violin teacher in Israel, where her pupils included Pinchas Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz.

1901 to 1988Teaching violin in IsraelHungarian violin school traditionTeaching Pinchas Zukerman and Shlomo Mintz

Born: 1 December 1901, Budapest
Died: 2 December 1988, Holon
Occupation: music educator, violinist, pedagogue
Education: Franz Liszt Academy of Music

Ilona Fehér was born in 1901 in Budapest

Ilona Fehér was born in Budapest on December 1, 1901. As a young violinist she studied with József Bloch, Josef Smilovitch and Imre Pogány. She then studied for 6 years with Jenő Hubay at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

Between the two world wars she performed across Europe, including with Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In 1942 she and her daughter were sent to a concentration camp. They escaped in 1944 and joined Hungarian and Czechoslovak partisans until the Red Army arrived.

After the war she settled in Czechoslovakia and performed only in the Soviet bloc. In 1949 she played at a concert marking 1 year of Israel and then moved to Israel with her husband and daughter. She first performed in kibbutzim, then turned to teaching violin in her small apartment in Holon.

She had 250 pupils, among them Shlomo Mintz, Hagai Shaham, Shmuel Ashkenasi and conductor Yoel Levi. She taught at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, gave master classes abroad and judged international violin competitions in Germany. She died in Holon in 1988, and the city named a street after her.