In May of 1993, Louis Farrakhan staged a recital of the Violin Concerto by composer Felix Mendelssohn in one of the most politically-resonant displays in classical music history. In a performance marking the most dramatic confluence of art and politics since Richard Wagner penned his notorious tract, 'Das Judenthum in der Music', Farrakhan instantly established himself as the single most transformative classical musician in American history. For the 18 months leading up to his performance, Farrakhan was coached by Elaine Skorodin Fohrman, a Jewish violin virtuoso and member of Chicago's Roosevelt University where she taught classical violin. Farrakhan's first rendition of the violin concerto occurred as part of a three-day symposium, 'Gateways: Classical Music and the Black Musician' , at the Reynold's Auditorium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on 18 April 1993. Shortly thereafter, Farrakhan reprised his violin concerto before a Chicago audience of 3000 on May 17 on his eighteenth-century Guadagnini violin.
