Ivry Gitlis (Hebrew: עברי גיטליס;‎ 25 August 1922 – 24 December 2020) was an Israeli virtuoso violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

[6] From 1938 to 1940, his teachers included George Enescu[7] and Jacques Thibaud in Paris and Carl Flesch in Spa, Belgium and later in London.

During the preliminary stages of the competition, a rumor circulated that he had stolen a Stradivarius violin during the war, which caused a scandal on the day of the final.

[9] In the same year, Gitlis made his debut in Paris, playing in a recital at the Salle Gaveau, sponsored by the music manager Marcel de Valmalète (9 July 1951).

Gitlis continued his studies with such noted virtuosi as Georges Enesco, Jacques Thibaud and Theodore Pashkus, after which we embarked on a European concert tour.

Further tours of the European continent have strengthened critical belief that Ivry Gitlis was destined to become one of the world's greatest violinists.

There he made several tours, managed by Sol Hurok, including those conducted by Eugene Ormandy (Tchaikovsky, in Philadelphia) and George Szell (Sibelius, on 15,16 and 18 December 1955 in New York).

He gave a series of concerts under the cultural exchange program of the Soviet Union and Israel, starting in Vilnius (23 October 1963).

[13] In 1975, he undertook a dramatic role, as Hypnotist in François Truffaut's film, The Story of Adele H. He often visited Japan, where he was very popular.

At various stages in his career, Gitlis played on a 1699 Giovanni Battista Rogeri, which he sold to famed violin author Sidney Bowden,[18] the 1737 "Chant du Cygne" Antonio Stradivari,[19] and the 1740 "Ysaye" Guarneri del Gesù.

[20] Ivry Gitlis owned the 1713 "Sancy" Antonio Stradivari and a violin by Émile Marcel Français, Paris 1944 (won as a prize for the 1951 "Thibaud Competition").

(Ivry Gitlis – January 2007)[21][22] Ivry Gitlis was married from 1959 to 1960 to American director and writer Sandra Hochman;[25] also to French Actress France Lambiotte [de; fr], with whom he had one child, Raphaëlle;[26] and until his death was married to German actress Sabine Glaser [de], mother of three of his four children, Nessie, David and Johnathan.