Ellis Levy

Ellis Levy – (b. Indianapolis, October 23, 1887 – d. July 1966) – Violinist, conductor, and composer. While growing up in Indianapolis, Ellis Levy showed great promise as a young violinist and studied with Adolph Schellschmidt and Hugh McGibney. For a four-year period in Chicago, Levy studied violin with French virtuoso Emile Sauret and composition with British composer/violinist Felix Borowski (perhaps at the Chicago Music College where both musicians taught early in the 20th Century). He furthered his training in Europe with Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and German composer Hugo Kaun. On Ysaÿe’s recommendation, Levy obtained a position with the Russian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Damrosch. (The Russian Symphony Orchestra in this case might have been in New York.) After a move to St. Louis in 1910, Levy served as assistant concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony while also conducting the Civic Orchestra of St. Louis and running the Ellis Levy Violin School. In 1934, he appeared as a soloist for the Indianapolis Matinée Musicale on a program of Indiana composers, which included works by the violinist Levy himself and Bainbridge Crist.