Jacob Gegna

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Jacob M. “Jascha” Gegna, also spelled Gegner and known by the Yiddish name יעקב געגנער, was an American violinist, teacher, composer and recording artist who lived from 1879 to 1944. He is remembered for his work as a teacher in New York and Los Angeles and for early 20th-century 78 rpm klezmer violin recordings, some of which survive as rare historical documents.

Gegna comes from a family of klezmer musicians. He was probably born December 17, 1879, in Poltava, in the Russian Empire (today Ukraine). His father, Chaim Meyer Gegner, was a violinist and composer, and his mother was Anna Pikaskaya. His father taught him first, and he later studied with other professionals in the Russian Empire, including time at the Kiev Conservatory. He also claimed to have studied with Leopold Auer, though that is not independently proven. He married his wife Slava around 1913.

In Europe, Gegna was a head violin teacher at the Poltava School of Music around 1910 and a soloist in the Poltava Symphony. Around 1913 he made about a dozen 78 rpm recordings, including klezmer pieces, mostly in Poltava for Amour and Extraphon. He lived last in Kyiv and attended the Beilis trial in 1913; Beilis’s testimony later inspired Gegna to compose a violin piece in his honor. With his brother Max (Mischa), Gegna fled Russia at the start of World War I and moved to the United States, arriving in New York in June 1914. Their father died in Bila Tserkva in 1917.

In New York, Gegna and his brothers performed in a small trio with a pianist named Weber. Jacob became better known as a violin teacher and opened a studio on the Upper East Side. He also performed with Joseph Rosenblatt at a 1915 benefit concert and toured with Modest Altschuler’s Russian Symphony Orchestra in 1917. His New York debut happened at Aeolian Hall in March 1918. He made a test recording for Victor Records in 1920, and in 1921 he recorded klezmer pieces for Columbia, including an elegy for Beilis.

Gegna taught many students who would go on to become notable musicians. He toured with a young prodigy named Sammy Kramar in 1920. In 1924 he was honored with a 25th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring his daughter Jenny and several of his students. He also opened a new studio in Far Rockaway, Queens, and performed his own compositions at the Aeolian Hall. A further solo recital followed in 1927.

In 1928 Gegna remarried Blanche Brazinsky. He visited the West Coast in 1929 and made his Los Angeles debut at Hazard’s Pavilion, then settled in Los Angeles. He taught in Hollywood and played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1932 he became head of the violin department at the Institute of Musical Education, whose string orchestra debuted in 1933. His brother Naum joined him in California in 1935.

Gegna contracted tuberculosis in 1942 and spent his last years at the Duarte Sanatorium in Los Angeles. He died on September 11, 1944, and was buried in the Beth Olam Cemetery in Hollywood. His legacy lives on in his students, many of whom had successful careers, and in his early klezmer recordings, which gained renewed interest during the Klezmer revival of the 1970s. The recording Taxim was reissued and performed by groups like The Klezmorim, and some of his European recordings have appeared on later reissues.