Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976) was a Polish-born American violinist, composer and arranger. Trained in Europe and later active internationally, he became especially associated with new music written for the violin.

Dushkin’s most famous collaboration was with Igor Stravinsky, for whom he advised on violin writing and premiered the Violin Concerto. He also made arrangements and concert pieces, some of which entered the recorded repertory through performers and broadcast programmes.

As a composer-arranger, Dushkin worked from a performer’s understanding of line, balance and display. His music and transcriptions are shaped by the realities of the violin under the hand rather than by abstract speculation.

His place in musical history rests chiefly on performance and collaboration, but that role was far from secondary. Dushkin helped translate modern compositional imagination into playable, persuasive violin sound.