December 10, 1906] – July 20, 1998), a Jewish, Russian Empire-born, German-trained violin virtuoso, was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.

He sent a marriage proposal by telegram to a lovely, red-haired girl he had met in Germany, Dr. Erika Lipsker (or Zarden), philologist and Renaissance historian, who sailed to Melbourne in 1934 and became his wife of 63 years.

Adolf (1891–1958), a bass-baritone, also migrated to Melbourne in 1934 and taught at the University Conservatorium where his students included the sopranos Glenda Raymond[5] and Sylvia Fisher.

The critic Virgil Thomson of the New York Herald Tribune wrote: "Such unfailing nobility of tone, such evenness of coloration through the scale and, most extraordinary of all, such impeccable pitch...left one a little gasping."

Following Spivakovsky's New York performance of the violin concerto by Gian Carlo Menotti, a review appearing in the May 3, 1954 edition of Time stated: "As always, his tone was luxuriant, his pitch impeccable, and he brought the music to full-blooded life."

Spivakovsky was soloist in the premiere performances of Leon Kirchner's Sonata Concertante and David Diamond's Canticle and Perpetual Motion.

For more than four decades, represented by Columbia Artists Management, he travelled extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Israel, and Europe giving solo performances.

Upon hearing, in 1957, a recording by Emil Telmányi of Bach's works for solo violin played with a curved bow, Spivakovsky purchased a VEGA BACH-Bow from Knud Vestergaard of Denmark for himself.

In a spoken introduction to his live performance of the "Chaconne," now released by DOREMI,[7] Spivakovsky explained his motivation for the use of the curved bow.

For the following LP recordings, Tossy Spivakovsky's violin, which he sold in 1972, was The Macmillan Stradivari of 1721: Production, restoration and remastering from reel-to-reel tapes and acetate, by DOREMI[1]