Glenn Dichterow will step down as Concertmaster of the New York
Philharmonic at the conclusion of the 2013/14 season. He has been in
that position since 1980 — at 34 years the longest such tenure in the
history of the orchestra. He is also the highest paid orchestral
musician in the US, reportedly earning a $500,000 salary. A native of
Southern California, Dicterow, 63, was a violinist with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic for nearly 10 years during the 1970s, serving as
associate concertmaster, second concertmaster and eventually rising to
the position of concertmaster. His father, Harold, was the principal
of the second violin section of the LA Phil for more than 50 years.
Starting in the fall of 2013, Dichterow will hold the newly-created
Robert Mann Endowed Chair in Violin and Chamber Music. His wife, Karen
Dreyfus, will also join the USC faculty. Dreyfus is a violist who has
taught at at the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School and
Mannes School of Music in New York.
Regarding longest-serving concertmasters, the one who immediately
comes to mind is Richard Moiseyevich Burgin who led the Boston
Symphony Orchestra from 1920-1962. Born in Warsaw in 1892, he was a
pupil of Joachim _and_ Auer, and was concertmaster of the Warsaw
Philharmonic at age 22! Burgin can be seen playing in some of the more
vintage titles in the new ICA Classics DVD series of old WGBH-TV/
Boston broadcasts
http://tiny.cc/cqstew (Burgin at 0:57, and that's
famous drumstick maker Everett 'Vic' Firth at 1:08). Richard Burgin
was married to violinist Ruth Posselt. He died in Florida in 1981,
aged 89.