Tossy Spivakovsky (1906-1998), violinist and teacher, made his performance debut as a ten-year-old prodigy, began touring Europe at thirteen and studied violin at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Musik before forming the Spivakovsky Duo with his older brother, pianist Jascha Spivakovsky, in 1920. At eighteen Tossy became concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, but he resigned the following year. The Spivakovsky duo performed in a number of European countries before they teamed with cellist Edmund Kurtz in 1930. Three years later, the trio were to settle in Melbourne, where Tossy and Kurtz were both engaged to teach at the Conservatorium. In Melbourne Tossy was joined by his fiancée, philologist Dr Erika Lipsker-Zarden, who fled Germany in late 1934; they were married at the end of that year, and she taught Spanish at the University of Melbourne from 1936 to 1939. The trio performed regularly around the country and were often on the wireless; in March 1939 the brothers gave a concert to raise funds for European refugees on behalf of the Jewish Democratic Cultural League. In 1940 Tossy and Erika moved to the USA, where they lived for the rest of their lives, Tossy appearing as a soloist with major orchestras and teaching for fifteen years at Juillard. He played a 1721 Stradivarius, and his idiosyncratic technique gave rise to the book The Spivakovsky Way of Bowing by Gaylord Jost. Jascha, who married an Adelaide girl, was to remain in Melbourne until his death in 1970. Although Tossy was particularly renowned for his interpretations of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, at the time of Jascha’s death in Toorak the pair was planning to record Beethoven’s violin and piano sonatas. Their brothers Issy and Adolf both moved to Melbourne, too; Issy taught violin, viola and cello at Scotch College for 28 years, and Adolf taught singing at the Conservatorium.
