‘No one needs a second Heifetz, we need you’ - Philippe Quint’s life lessons

My first and final teachers in the Soviet Union – Boris Sergeyev and Andrei Korsakov – both had a profound impact on me. The former was so inspiring. I remember that when he suggested I learn one exercise, I would learn three. If he asked for three, I would learn five. I could not stop playing the violin; I was fully immersed in learning and loved going to lessons. And my time with Korsakov, whom I believe to be one of the most extraordinary violinists of his generation, was when I fully realised that I wanted to pursue the violin…