God's Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz

About The Film

The first film biography of the world’s most renowned violinist, GOD’S FIDDLER: JASCHA HEIFETZ profiles the six-decade career of the modern virtuoso, a legendary but eccentric figure who revolutionized the art of the violin. Jascha Heifetz was a Lithuanian-born Jew who showed early childhood brilliance before ascending to his much-heralded Carnegie Hall debut at age 16. Referenced throughout popular culture from the Muppets to Woody Allen to Jacky Benny, Heifetz was idolized by giants of the classical world such as Itzhak Perlman, who is interviewed along with former students, biographers and Israeli musician Ivry Gitlis. Drawing on exhaustive research, rare period photographs, vintage performance clips and recently discovered home movies, award-winning filmmaker Peter Rosen delivers an insightful portrait of a complex artistic genius and the paradoxical price of his immortal musical gifts.