This 2-CD set features solo recordings by the remarkable American violinist Eudice Shapiro. Shapiro attended the Curtis Institute of Music, and was the only female student in Efrem Zimbalist’s class. After graduating in 1936, she moved to Los Angeles, where she was a highly sought-after free-lance violinist, playing as leader in recording sessions of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Pat Boone. In addition to performing as soloist, Shapiro was the leader of the American Art Quartet. She also served as the concertmistress of the RKO and Paramount film studios, and can be heard in such films as For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Apartment, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Around the World in 80 Days. As the noted critic Henry Roth remarked through the medium of the cinema, “her recorded playing in solo passages has been heard by an audience far greater than any other woman in history.” The recordings featured in this 2-CD set include the complete Brahms violin sonatas, works by Bloch, Bartok, Milhaud and Ravel, as well as two Stravinsky pieces sanctioned by the composer himself.