Stuart Canin is the concertmaster of the LA Opera Orchestra. He was concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1980 and concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera from 1970 to 1972. He was born in New York City, where he studied the violin with famed pedagogue Ivan Galamian. In 1959 he surpassed 25 other violinists to capture first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. One year later he was honored by his native city with its highest cultural award, the Handel Medal, in recognition of his musical achievements. He has served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center, and from 1995 to 1998 he was guest concertmaster of the Tokyo-based New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa. As concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony under Ozawa, he was featured as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions, including concerts on tours to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Tokyo. For many years he was a Chamber Music Artist at the Aspen, Colorado Music Festival, as well as at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. He has served as Professor of Violin at prestigious conservatories in this country and abroad, among them the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany. He has given master classes at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the invitation of the Chinese government and appeared as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony. Mr. Canin had the signal honor of giving the first performance on the Jascha Heifetz Guarnerius violin after the death of the great violinist in 1987. Mr. Canin has recorded an album of the music of the Swiss composer Frank Martin for New Albion Records. For seven years, Canin, one of the founders of the New Century Orchestra, led the conductorless orchestra as Music Director and Concertmaster. In 2001, Kent Nagano appointed him concertmaster of the LA Opera Orchestra and in 2006, James Conlon asked him to continue as concertmaster, a position he still holds.