Hyman Bress

Canadian violinist (* 30 June 1931 in Cape Town, South Africa; † 30 October 1995 in Montreal, Canada). He is known for having recorded the violin concertos of Joseph Joachim and Ernest Bloch, probably the first to do so, among many other obscure works. He was the first violinist and founder of the Montreal String Quartet with the Joachim brothers. He became concertmaster, at age 27, of the Montreal Symphony for one season (1958-59) then continued his concertizing career as a soloist, often with major orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony and continued playing with the quartet until 1963. In the 1960s, Bress recorded a series of five records for Folkways Records entitled The Violin, covering material from the Baroque to the Twentieth Century and included one of his own electronic compositions – the Fantasy for Violin, Piano, and electric tape. In New York, circa 1962, he presented his Fantasy while the score of the piece was being shown on a large screen as it was being played – one of the first instances of a multi-media concert presentation.