D.C. Dounis - A Biography

By Brendan Bordick-Lesavage

A PDF of this biography can be downloaded by clicking here. A video version of this biography is available by clicking here.

EARLY LIFE 

Demetrius Constantine Dounis was born towards the end of the 19th century in Athens, Greece. Born to an upper-class family, Dounis had the opportunity to receive a high quality education as well as the opportunity to experience music and the arts. He had attended music classes at the Odeon in Athens, and gave his first violin recital at the age of seven. Three years later, Dounis sold his bicycle and roller-skates to go Italy and study the violin. No imploring by Dounis’ mother would make him return, and so, Demetrius’ father had sailed for Italy so that he may bring his son home. His father had made clear to him that “The three approved professions – the church, law, and medicine – were set forth as fitting for his consideration to carry on the family traditions – worthy professions in which a gentleman might engage with honor to himself and his family. “ 

Upon his return to Greece, Dounis (age 11) registered to study the violin and mandolin at the Athenian Mandolinata. Dounis graduated within three years, earning a soloist diploma. Following his graduation, Dounis was invited to give a series of private house concerts in the United States at the age of fourteen. The tour was cut short when his father crossed the ocean in a fury in order to bring his son home. 

Dounis continued to diligently study the violin and mandolin. His ability on the mandolin had brought him numerous opportunities to give concerts and go on tour. In 1903, Dounis’ father had gone away on a trip, and Dounis had taken the opportunity to join the modern dancer, Isadora Duncan on her European tour as a collaborative musician.  This infuriated Dounis’ father, who had once again come to collect his son bring him back home. 

MEDICINE, MUSIC, AND WAR

Tensions between Dounis and his father and neared a breaking point. Dounis, realizing that his father was determined to disown him had he continued his behavior, finally succumbed to the wishes of his father. Dounis proceeded to enroll at the University of Athens Medical School, before transferring to the University of Vienna Medical School. 

While in Vienna, Dounis continued to study the violin with Czech virtuoso Franz Ondricek. Ondricek regarded Dounis as an exceptional student, and it is suspected that Dounis collaborated on at least one of Ondricek’s pedagogical works. Ondrieck admits to collaborating with a medical doctor, Dr. S. Mittlemann, for his New Method of Obtaining the Masterful Technique of Violin Playing on Anatomical and Physiological Basis (published in 1909).  In conversations with his students, Dounis revealed that he had written the etudes in Ondricek’s book. Dounis had adopted the pseudonym in order to avoid drawing attention to himself and angering his father. It is interesting to note that the German name Mittlemann means a man of medium or in-between size. Dounis was 5’4” tall. 

Interrupting his medical and musical studies in Vienna, Dounis toured Eastern Europe and Russia as a violinist. Upon the tour’s conclusion, Dounis returned to Vienna to complete his medical studies. He graduated as a medical doctor specializing in neurology and psychiatry. Dounis then left for Paris to begin his medical internship at the Paris Charity Hospital. 

While in Paris, Dounis met the famous Belgian virtuoso, Cesar Thomson, who would become his teacher and friend. At times, Dounis would have to travel to Brussels (≈ 200 miles) in order to take lessons with Thomson. Dounis and Thomson took a strong liking to each other. Thomson would address Dounis as “my colleague.” With Dounis’ continuing studies with Thomson and his work with patients as a medical doctor, Dounis began to become quite interested in pedagogy. 

During Dounis’ final year of residency in Paris, his father died. Upon fulfilling the requirements of his internship, Dounis left medicine so that he might concentrate on music. With the support of Cesar Thomson, he embarked on a European concert tour. It was during this concert tour that war had broken out in the Balkans. 

The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) were two successive military conflicts that resulted in the Ottoman Empire losing the majority of its European territory.  The first war was fought between the Balkan League – Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro – and the Ottoman Empire. One month after the Balkan League’s victory over the Ottomans, the Second Balkan War broke out, which was fought between the Balkans over the territory won in the prior conflict. In this second war, Greece and Bulgaria were pitted against one another. During this time, Dounis was traveling through Bulgaria for his concert tour. He was stopped and arrested as a citizen of an enemy country. It took intervention from politicians on both sides to negotiate his release. This would not be the last time that Dounis’ life and work was interrupted by war.

World War I began on July 28th, 1914. In 1917, Greece declared war on the Central Powers. Dounis was drafted to the medical corps and was stationed in Thessaloniki. During the day he performed his military duties, and at night worked tirelessly to document and formulate his analysis of violin technique. He had manufactured eighteen volumes, which would later be published in French as La Technique du Violin. This work would later be republished in America as Artist’s Technique Op. 12. It was during this time, while working at night with poor light, that Dounis had developed an abscess in his right eye which eventually lead to a loss of sight in that eye. His left eye was also affected, necessitating the use of strong glasses. 

Dounis had completed his service to the Greek military in 1919. Around the same time, Dounis had made a connection with Alexander Kazantzis, a former pupil of Cesar Thomson and director of the National Odeon of Salonika. Sharing a teacher had helped to establish a rapport between the two, and in December of that year, Dounis was hired as a professor of violin and viola, as well as conductor of the conservatory’s orchestra.  Dounis had serviced on the Odeon’s faculty for three years until the termination of his contract. 

While at the Odeon, Dounis had taken multiple leaves of absence. Some were taken with permission, and others were not. These leaves of absence were taken for concert tours and in order to see publishers about his books. In 1922, Dounis had requested a six month leave. When the conservatory’s board of directors met, they had decided to not only deny his request, but also to terminate his contract. 

Upon his dismissal, Dounis went on concert tour throughout Egypt, Russia, France, Austria, and Holland, playing concerts in all of the major cities: Moscow, Paris, Vienna, Leipzig, and Hague. At the conclusion of the tour, Dounis had spent some time in London, England before leaving for New York City, which would become his home. 

LIFE IN AMERICA

In 1923, Dounis established himself in the Upper East Side at 23 E 81st Street. He shared a floor with four other Greek men: Petros Depastas, vice-consul of Greece; Aristides Georgiades, vice-president of the Atlantic Bank of NYC; Prodromos Nomides, officer of the Hellenic Bank of NYC; and Antonio Dounis, brother of Demetrius and non-musician. 

Dounis was soon able to secure a job as a mandolin soloist on a weekly program on the Blue Network radio station WJZ. He was also able to recruit a few students, including his roommate Prodromos Nomides. Teaching Nomides as a beginner inspired Dounis to write new works, as well as experiment and confirm his theories on violin playing. Having had no other teachers, Dounis was able to see the impact of his theories and ideas on a student who was, in essence, a blank slate. Nomides, upon the conclusion of his studies, believed to have benefitted greatly under Dounis. 

Throughout the 1920’s, Dounis wrote nine books for the violin, and would have to travel to London and Vienna to present his work to the publishers. One work, the ”Dounis Daily Dozen” was published in NYC by Harms, Inc. Dounis’ experience and expertise in music did not stop here however. He was a working musician and would play the violin and viola in orchestras, as well as expand his work as a mandolinist. At times, Dounis would play background music on the mandolin for the silent film studios in Astoria, Queens. He also made concert appearances in the Hippodrome and Town Hall. 

In all of his appearances as a mandolinist, Dounis assumed his brother’s name, Anton Dounis. He chose not to use his own name, as he wanted to be known as Demetrius Dounis the violinist, and not Demetrius Dounis the mandolinist. Though he was greatly successful as a mandolinist (as can be heard in the existing recordings, Dounis’ real passion was for the violin, the instrument that he had run away to study at ten years old. Dounis had aspirations of emerging in the United States as a great violin teacher and concert soloist. He went and preserved his identity as Demetrius Dounis, realizing that his fame as mandolinist would prevent critics and the public taking him seriously as a violinist. Dounis would even go on to grow a moustache later on in his life in hopes to disguise himself from his mandolin playing alter-ego, Anton. 

On January 25th, 1931, “Anton” Dounis gave a mandolin concert in the Bijou Theatre in NYC. Every work performed in the concert was taken from the repertoire of a concert violinist. The program included: Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 4 (in entirety), Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat, Op. 9, Paganini’s Caprice No. 23 in octaves, Beethoven’s Romance in F, Kreisler’s Rondino on a theme by Beethoven, and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. The next day, the New York Times published this review:

Anton Dounis, whose extraordinary playing of the mandolin has been recognized in Europe, appeared in recital last night at the Bijou Theater. His program might have been that of a virtuoso violinist, and included the Vieuxtemps Concerto in D minor, Op. 31, Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs and shorter pieces. 

The Greek Mandolinist displayed rare technical command of his instrument. He has a brilliant trill, among other feats, and his presentation of Paganini’s unaccompanied Twenty-Third Caprice, with octave passages played with alternate (fingered octaves) fingers, was an unusual feat of virtuosity.

In 1927, the Roxy Theater had opened its doors in Manhattan. The theater had employed a large staff of entertainers which included a full symphony orchestra. Sometime during the late 1920’s, the orchestra contractor, William Lockwood, had hired a violist named Dmitry Yaltoff. It was not long before the concertmaster of the orchestra, Mischa Violin, preparing for a Carnegie Hall recital, revealed to Lockwood that he was studying with Yaltoff. Violin said to Lockwood, “No, his name is not Yaltoff, but Dounis. He is the world’s greatest teacher.”

Dounis adopting the name Yaltoff was two-fold. Using the pseudonym allowed Dounis to conceal his identity and protect his reputation. It was also, however, an intelligent way to make himself more appealing to contractors. In the 1920’s and 30’s, many of Leopold Auer’s students were emerging on the concert scene. As such, a Russian name had begun to act as a mark of quality. 

In October of 1929, the stock market crashed signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. For the next decade, unemployment was rampant, especially amongst musicians. Dounis was fortunate to have secured a position with the Roxy Theater which guaranteed a steady income. It was difficult to keep a full teaching studio given the economic conditions, and Dounis had decided that it was better to maintain his current prices than lower them and risk degrading his reputation. There was also a lapse in Dounis publications between 1928 and 1935. Dounis’ main priority, like that of the rest of America, was survival. 

THE FLOOD FAMILY

Dounis, despite his successes, would become depressed and dejected at times. He would be unrecognized, unappreciated and misunderstood throughout his career. Some former students would later elaborate and comment on the troubled psyche of their teacher and how the stress of it inevitably led him down the path of alcoholism. The early 1930’s had become one of the dark periods in his life. His life and career had hit a wall. 

All of this changed in 1933 when Dounis was contacted by Mrs. Leona Flood of Los Angeles. Mrs. Flood was the wife of Frank B. Flood. Flood had previously been the owner of a small milk and ice cream company that was later bought by the Carnation Evaporated Milk Company. He became the manager for Carnation’s western district, and as such, was well off. The Floods had a daughter, also named Leona, who was just fifteen years old at the time. Leona had been studying the violin for several years, but Mrs. Flood was dissatisfied with the level of instruction that her daughter was receiving. 

In an attempt to help Leona herself, Mrs. Flood had read Dounis’ The Artist’s Technique of Violin Playing and was thoroughly impressed by the work believing that this type of teaching was what her daughter needed to succeed. She subsequently took a chance in contacting the publisher, who then put her in direct contact with Dounis. An audition in Dounis’ NYC studio was arranged. Leona and Mrs. Flood traveled to New York and met with Dounis. Leona was accepted as a student, but studying in New York would interrupt her schooling and aspects of her personal life. After much persuading, Dounis had agreed to move to Los Angeles and teach Leona.

Leona had begun studying with Dounis at the end of 1933 and worked diligently under his guidance. After little more than a year, Dounis had felt that Leona was ready to concertize. In March of 1935, Dounis accompanied Leona in Europe as she embarked on her first concert tour. The tour opened with a recital in Oslo, Norway, which Leona gave in the honor of her grandfather from whom her family had inherited a fortune permitting the purchase of a Stradivarius. She gave concerts in Austria, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Italy before returning to the United States in December of 1936. 

In 1938, Dounis traveled to Hawaii and Australia to give a series of master classes and lectures. These classes became Dounis’ primary means of publically communicating his theory of technique to a wider audience without being affiliated with an institution. While Dounis wrote many technical studies, the majority of his ideas were never elaborated on in these works, and he had not written a treatise. 

D.C. DOUNIS, MASTER TEACHER 

By the 1940’s, word of Dounis and his unique teaching style had spread, and he was soon inundated with lesson requests. He established a studio in New York City at 400 E. 52nd St. in Midtown, and traveled between the east and west coasts to teach privately. Dounis only accepted advanced students, many of them being top-notch professionals who felt that their playing had plateaued. Many students came to see Dounis in order to seek out answers to particular musical and technical problems. For reasons of professional pride, many people had kept this contact a secret which also contributed to a lack of publicity. 

Dounis had a great respect for this expected confidentiality, and would rarely, if at all, speak of the famous pupils that came to study with him. It is unknown exactly how many students Dounis taught in lifetime, and the identity of many students has remained secret. In an interview with George Neikrug in 2011, he elaborated on the secretive nature of Dounis’ studio:

His New York studio had two doors: one in the front, and one in the back. We would enter through the front door, and exit through the back. This way, one student never encountered another as he was coming or going. His was for reasons of professional pride.

The next section offers portraits of some of Dounis’ more famous pupils.

William Primrose 

Violist William Primrose was one Dounis’ first well known students. Prior to meeting Dounis, Primrose had studied the violin with Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium before becoming a violist and joining the London String Quartet. In the late 1930’s, he came to New York to play with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and began studying with Dounis in 1940. Dounis worked with Primrose on the technical difference between violin and viola playing and devised exercises specifically for Primrose. 

Elizabeth D. Orr, at lunch with Dounis in early 1941 recalls Dounis mentioning Primrose “studying under him and subsequently re-recording all his records with great improvement over the earlier recordings.” Later in that same year, Primrose launched his solo career when he was invited to join tenor Richard Crooks (of the New York Metropolitan Opera) on tour. 

George Neikrug

George Neikrug was a cellist who had studied with virtuoso Emmanuel Feuermann until Feuermann’s death in 1942. Neikrug at the time, felt that he had reached an impasse in his playing and that it would be impossible for him to make further progress on the cello. One of his friends, a violist, studied with William Primrose. Primrose had raved about his lessons with Dounis, and George’s friend figured that he may as well go take some lessons with Dounis rather than hear what he had to say second-hand from Primrose. Later, he told George about his lessons with Dounis. George thought that Dounis’ ideas on playing resembled the image he had of the way his teacher, Feuermann played. In a last ditch effort, he contacted Dounis before deciding to “make peace with his mediocrity.”

He began studying with Dounis 1943, after having pled with him for several months to accept him as a cello student. Before studying with Dounis, George resigned himself to the fact that he would always be a section player in the back of the orchestra. Dounis’ ideas captivated him, transformed him, and gave him hope. 

Before my time with him, I had a concept of what I wanted to sound like but I couldn’t do it, so I was envious of those around me who had a seemingly natural technique. Thanks to Dounis, I eventually developed this same kind of technique. 

In 1947, Neikrug made his debut as a soloist and later became principal cellist with the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. Neikrug studied with Dounis until Dounis’ death in 1954. Neikrug would later become the chief disciple of Dounis’s teachings, preserving them and passing them on to coming generations. In 2019, at the age of 100, George died and is remembered as a great virtuoso and teacher. In the 21st century, students of Neikrug continue to carry on the torch and preserve the wealth of knowledge that is Dounis’s Expressive Technique. 

Yehudi Menuhin 

Yehudi Menuhin was a child prodigy and concert soloist who had once been called “the most wonderful artist I have ever heard” by Sir Edward Elgar. Early in his life, Menuhin would appear as a soloist in London, Paris, New York, and Berlin. As he aged, Menuhin became increasingly doubtful of his ability to play the violin. This led Menuhin to seek out Dounis’ teachings in secret. 

Shortly after the death of Dounis, Menuhin’s sister, Yaltah, was an accomplished pianist who had then collaborated with George Neikrug. Neikrug recalls the experience: 

She said, “Would you help Yehudi a little bit? He has trouble with his bow.” I had about ten sessions with him… Everything I told him was Dounis’ teaching, and [Menuhin] told me, “I wish I’d met him.” A few years later I was working with the pianist Arpád Sándor, who had accompanied Menuhin. I told him the story about working with Yehudi, and what he’d said about wishing he’d met Dounis. Sándor said, “But he did meet Dounis. We went together to him many times.”

It also is confirmed through Felix Kuhner that Menuhin had played for Dounis. Kuhner states that Menuhin was never able to fully rework his technique due to being unable to commit to 2 years of consistent study with Dounis. Although Menuhin had denied ever meeting Dounis, he openly respected him. In Conversations with Menuhin, Yehudi refers to Dounis as a “wonderful teacher” and states that his “published exercises are among the best and most ingenious ever devised for the violin.” Menuhin is but one example of a well-known soloist seeking out the instruction of Dounis in secret. Dounis’ teaching would go on to influence Yehudi’s own in Six Lessons with Yehudi Menuhin and The Compleat Violinist. 

Joseph Silverstein 

Joseph Silverstein was a violinist who showed great promise and talent at a young age. Silverstein was admitted into the Curtis Institute of Music in 1944 at the age of 12, and primarily studied with Efrem Zimbalist, director of the institute. During the summer of 1949, Silverstein had taken some lessons with Dounis, a fact soon discovered by Ivan Galamian, professor of violin at the Curtis Institute and the Julliard School of Music. 

Galamian came to see Zimbalist. ‘Students at Curtis are given, free of charge, the finest teaching available,’ he fumed. ‘I happen to know that one of your students, and one of mine, spent the summer paying for lessons with Dounis. Now they are distributing his exercises here. I don’t know what you intend doing, but I want my student expelled from the Institute.’ (Galamian’s student was Michael Serber, a fine talent who later entered the psychiatric field; Galamian was particularly angry because two of his best Julliard students, David Nadien and Berl Senofsky, had also fallen under Dounis’s spell.) ‘Who is my student?’ Zimbalist asked. ‘Joseph Silverstein.’ Distressed, he called Silverstein in and softly said, ‘Joseph, you are dismissed.’ Silverstein’s accomplishments following his dismissal are too well known to enumerate. In an attempt to ease his lingering lack of conviction about the decision, twenty-eight years later Zimbalist had the Institute award Silverstein his diploma.  

Silverstein would later go on to have a successful orchestral career. In 1962, he became concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and held the position for 22 years. Silverstein also held teaching positions at Boston University, Yale, New England Conservatory, and the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2015 interview, Silverstein said that his lessons with Dounis were “very helpful” and that his manner of identifying and working on difficulties was “an excellent method.”

Height of Fame

Much of Dounis’ success can be attributed to Mrs. Leona Flood, who had served as Dounis’ secretary for many years. Morally, financially, and through her business acumen, Mrs. Flood was instrumental in helping Dounis achieve his reputation as a leading authority on violin technique.  Mrs. Flood was widowed in 1946 after her husband, Frank B. Flood died after facing a long illness. In 1949, Dr. D.C. Dounis and Mrs. Leona Flood were married. 

Throughout the 1940’s, Dounis had become extremely successful as a violin teacher. Between 1941 and 1949, Dounis published 17 works for the violin. His popularity was at an all-time high. Dounis adverts occupied major music magazines, and articles about Dounis were being written by his students. In 1949, Valborg Leland, head of the violin department of Stephens College, Missouri, lectured at the Julliard School of Music on The Dounis Principals of Violin Playing, a book that she had written based on her lessons with Dounis. This book was published in 1949 by the Strad, and later republished by Patelson Music House in NYC. 

In 1948, Dounis began his series of master classes in Los Angeles which were attended by string players from the Hollywood Studios and musicians from the area. Leona Flood assisted him in these classes. In that same year, he returned to New York to continue his teaching there. Dounis’s teaching schedule became increasingly intense at the beginning of the fifties. 

Dounis had continued to give master classes and courses on top of his regular teaching. In 1951, he gave a six-week master course, from June 25th to August 4th, for string players at the Conservatory of Music and Arts in Los Angeles, California. Over the next few years, Dounis would give similar classes in London, Paris, and California. During what would be his final trip to London, Dounis became very ill and returned to California, where he was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. 

Legacy 

Dounis was attempting a recovery in California, but his situation was not improving. In his final weeks, Dounis was visited by faithful students across the country. Mrs. Dounis limited the students to one a day. Even in his weakened condition, Dounis was able to impart guidance on technical and musical matters to the students that persisted in coming. Those students who were sensitive about burdening him who had come without instruments, Dounis would insist that they bring their instruments and play for him. About his unfortunate time, Neikrug said:

Two days before he died, I went to see him. He weighed about sixty pounds. He held out his finger and said, “What’s the difference between the up bow and the down bow?” He was still teaching until the day he died.

On August 11, 1954, after a struggle for life – with a mind that was alert and active, but a body that was not – Demetrius Constantine Dounis died in the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California. He would be missed dearly by his family, friends, and students. Here, he is remembered by his principle student, George Neikrug:

“To those of us who knew and worked with Dr. Dounis in different parts of the world, that same world must have seemed a great deal smaller with the news of his death on August 12th here in Los Angeles. Until the very last hour of a lingering fatal illness his extraordinary mind and spirit retained that vitality and awareness which was a constant source of inspiration to his students. His greatest concern, in those last days, was for the ability of his students to carry on without him and perpetuate those ideals and principles that formed the basis of his unique teaching. How difficult it is to give the measure of such a man to those who had not the great fortune of working with him. How can one sum up the legacy of his knowledge? When one realizes the staggering fact that at the age of eighteen he had already written what are still today the most advanced works on violin technique and has been steadily developing and adding to his knowledge throughout the ensuing years until the age of sixty, perhaps some idea of the depth of his understanding will be apparent. His mind seemed to penetrate to the very core of every problem on any musical instrument and whether the problem was technical or musical he could immediately expose the truth in all its simplicity. To his students this process at times worked like magic, but on further pondering it would become clear that these truths were there for all to see. But who had the powers of observation and analysis to see them without his help? All who came in contact with his mind could never be the same again. One’s very thinking processes were revolutionized as if a sleeping giant within us had suddenly been awakened. The goal of the never‐ending search for truth and beauty in art finally seemed humanely obtainable. He guided the way along that road and the pupil’s efforts were richly rewarded in proportion to the amount of his work. One had to re‐evaluate every basic idea and conception of so‐called tradition in the light of Dr. Dounis’ teachings and very often the commonest maxims and rules we had for years accepted blindly as the truth, had to be discarded.

Dr. Dounis was always humble and undogmatic, at times to the point that a casual observer would little suspect the enormity of his knowledge. His teaching had its basis in the principles of nature, and he was always pointing out examples of the correct application of those principles in gifted people who had not studied with him but had found the same goals instinctively. He set a new standard of ethics in teaching by never showing favoritism to a student and even lavished greater attention and patience on the less gifted. In spite of the great number of gifted performers of reputation who worked with him, he refused to use their names for purposes of advertising and self‐glorification. I was privileged to witness the extraordinary sight of his last teaching sessions from his very death‐bed just a few days before his passing, during which intricate problems of phrasing, and bowings were discussed with students who had made a last pilgrimage from New York. After studying with him for almost fifteen years I learned even more than those last lessons than when he was at the height of his activities. This brave and great spirit will live on in the perpetuation of his thought, and the bonds between his pupils will grow ever stronger in the years to come. To his students who mourn I would like to prescribe his oft‐repeated remedy for times of grief and distress: “work, work and more work”. Only thus will he still be with us.”