"Music is for me a constant wonderment anda constant search."

Isaac Stern was not a typical musician. His styling was instantly recognized as something new and different though initially unappreciated when he hit the New York scene. Stern credited his formative violin education to Naoum Blinder, his teacher at the San Francisco conservatory, admiring Blinder's emphasis upon musical instinct in place of standard musical drilling in scales and the like.

Stern, who grew up in San Francisco after having spent his first year of life in the Ukraine, made his New York debut in 1937, at the age of seventeen, and was instantly rebuffed by leading critics. However, his return the following year was considered an unqualified success and solidified his position as a preeminent violinist despite the fact that, as Stern himself noted, "maybe I didn't even play as well [the second time]."

Clearly marking his path for fame, Stern enlisted the services of Sol Hurok, a focused agent who soon helped Stern become one of the busiest men in the music business. In one seven-month stretch in 1949, Stern played 120 concerts on three continents. Hurok once told the New York Times that "Stern is a man who cannot rest," and, indeed, Stern was not one to be caught acting idly, even when he wasn't on one of his whirlwind musical tours.

Crusading for arts causes, Stern earned some of his most significant notoriety for his philanthropically-centered work ethic. He championed Carnegie Hall when it was facing take-over by developers, forcing legislation that brought the concert hall into New York City's possession and becoming the first president of the Carnegie Hall Corporation, remaining in the position until his death this past Saturday. The National Endowment for the Arts also owes its existence to Stern, who assumed an a advisory during its creation in the 1960's and appearing before Congress in the 1970's to protest potential cuts in art funding.

Stern was notorious for crossing the political-cultural line often and without apology. His 1951 tour of the Soviet Union, during which he debated Nikita Kruschev for increased artistic dialogue between the Soviet Union and the West, was typical of his consistent pursuit of controversy. His subsequent refusal, in 1967, to tour the Soviet Union protesting for the rights of Soviet artists to cross borders as they chose indicated how his principles could lead him to turn on a dime and come away unscathed. Throughout his life, Stern was an outspoken advocate of arts education.

One of Stern's most intriguing quirks was his refusal, until his death, to play in Germany, as a protest against the Holocaust. Supremely intriguing was his encouragement of pupils like Itzhak Perlman to play there.

His musical legacy is one of an unmatched transparence and availability. A number of years ago, Sony Classical released a massive, forty-four CD compilation of his works. Another label, CBS Masterworks, has committed itself to keeping most of his catalogue consistently in print. For most musicians, such availability of their published recordings would keep their legacy alive. Stern, however, was much more to the music world than anything that can be heard on his CDs, and it is his devotion to the music in a much more pragmatic and activist sense, and his commitment to the arts as political tool, that will be the world's unrecoverable loss.