Enescu was born in Romania, in the village of Liveni (later renamed "George Enescu" in his honor), in

Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his
childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly
very short pieces survive, all of them for violin and piano. The earliest work of significant length bears
the title Pămînt românesc ("Romanian Land"), and is inscribed "opus for piano and violin by George
Enescu, Romanian composer, aged five years and a quarter".[2] Shortly thereafter, his father presented
him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. On 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became
the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory,[3][4] where he studied with Joseph
Hellmesberger Jr., Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. He was the second person ever admitted to
this university by a dispensation of age (there was a regulation that stipulated that no person younger
than 14 years could study at the Vienna Conservatory), after only Fritz Kreisler (in 1882, also at the age
of seven), and the first non-Austrian.[5]

In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna, in the presence of
Emperor Franz Joseph.[6]

Joseph Hellmesberger Sr., one of his teachers and the director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted
Enescu at his home,[when?] a place where the child prodigy met his idol, Johannes Brahms.[7]

He graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu
played works by Brahms, Sarasate and Mendelssohn. In 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies.
He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gedalge, and composition with Jules
Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.[citation needed]

Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris. André Gedalge said that he was
"the only one [among his students] who truly had ideas and spirit".[this quote needs a citation]

On 6 February 1898, at the age of only 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work,
Poema Română, played by the Colonne Orchestra (at the time, one of the most prestigious in the world)
and conducted by Édouard Colonne.[8]

Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being
the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–2), the opera Œdipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra.[citation
needed] He also wrote five symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris, and
much chamber music (three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano, a piano trio, two string
quartets and two piano quartets, a wind decet (French, "dixtuor"), an octet for strings, a piano quintet,
and a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments). A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how
Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankar's brother Uday
Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the
Colonial Exhibition in Paris, where he introduced him to the Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia.[9]

George Enescu Museum (Cantacuzino Palace), Bucharest

Grave of George Enescu -Père Lachaise Cemetery

On 8 January 1923 he made his American debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia
Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and he subsequently made frequent returns to the United
States. It was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist.
He also appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, and in 1936 he was one of the
candidates considered to replace Arturo Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York
Philharmonic.[10] In 1932, Enescu was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy.[11] In 1935,
he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin (who had been his pupil for
several years starting in 1927) in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He also conducted the New
York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938. In 1939 he married Maria Rosetti (known as the Princess
Cantacuzino through her first husband Mihail Cantacuzino), a good friend of Queen Marie of Romania.
While staying in Bucharest, Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei (now the George
Enescu Museum, dedicated to his work).[citation needed]

He lived in Paris and in Romania, but after World War II and the Soviet occupation of Romania, he
remained in Paris.[citation needed]

He was also a noted violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Serge
Blanc, Ida Haendel, Uto Ughi and Joan Field were among his pupils. See: List of music students by
teacher: C to F#George Enescu. He promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of
Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Jonel Perlea and Marţian Negrea.[citation needed] Enescu considered
Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin as the "Himalayas of violinists". An annotated version of this
work brings together the indications of Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempos, musicality,
fingering and expression.[12]

On his death in 1955, George Enescu was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Today, Bucharest houses a museum in the Cantacuzino Palace in Bucharest in his memory; his house in
Dorohoi is also open to the public; likewise, the Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest and the George
Enescu Festival—founded by his friend, musical advocate, and sometime collaborator, the conductor
George Georgescu[13]—are named and held in his honor. Recently, Bacău International Airport was
named George Enescu International Airport.[14]

Reception

Pablo Casals described Enescu as "the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart"[15] and "one of the
greatest geniuses of modern music".[16] Queen Marie of Romania wrote in her memoirs that "in George
Enescu was real gold".[17] Yehudi Menuhin, Enescu's most famous pupil, once said about his teacher:
"He will remain for me the absoluteness through which I judge others", and "Enescu gave me the light
that has guided my entire existence."[18] He also considered Enescu "the most extraordinary human
being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence" he had ever experienced.[19] Vincent
d'Indy claimed that if Beethoven's works were destroyed, they could be all reconstructed from memory
by George Enescu.[20] Alfred Cortot, one of the greatest pianists of all time, once said that Enescu,
though primarily a violinist, had better piano technique than his own.[21][22]

Near Moinesti there is the mansion from Tescani, donated by Enescu's wife to the Romanian state,
provided that he builds here a cultural center for artists. In Liveni there is the house where the
composer has grown up. There is a George Enescu memorial house in Sinaia (Villa Luminiş, Cumpatul
neighborhood). In the mansion in Tescani, Bacău (the "Rosetti-Tescanu Cultural Center"), the Romanian
state opened a creative center in the 80s, where literary works were composed (Jurnalul de la Tescani,
Andrei Plesu) year camps of painting and philosophy.

The maternal grandfather's house in Mihăileni, where Enescu spent part of his childhood, has come to
an advanced state of deterioration until 2014. It was rescued in August 2014 from demolition by a team
of volunteer architects.