Raymond Gniewek

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Raymond Gniewek (born November 13, 1931 in New York City ) is an American violinist.

Gniewek had violin lessons from his father from the age of five, studied at the Eastman School of Music and was a student of Albert Pratz . At the age of eighteen Erich Leinsdorf brought him to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant concertmaster . In 1957 he was the youngest and second violinist born in the USA (after Nahan Franko ) to be concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra . He held this position until 2000, during which time he worked with conductors such as Dimitri Mitropoulos , Karl Böhm , Herbert von Karajan , Leonard Bernstein and James Levine and participated in the performance of more than 100 operas. After 2000 he worked with various festival and opera orchestras.

Gniewek is married to the singer Judith Blegen for the second time . His sister is the celesta and glass harmonica player Cecilia Brauer .

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