Lord Yehudi Menuhin world famous violinist and yoga

Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was an extremely influential figure in British society. He made this island his home for a significant portion of his life, partially due to the influence of his British-born wife, the ballerina Diane Gould (1912-2003). Menuhin was given an honorary knighthood in 1965; citizenship in 1985, and a Lordship in 1993. These honours were not only for his outstanding musical ability, but also for his philanthropic and humanitarian interests.

Menuhin's Stradivarius

A child protégée, the New York-born violinist had an intuitive genius in expression on his instrument. But in middle age, strains and tensions in his body began to interrupt the consistency of his playing and he struggled to bring his intuitive understanding into consciousness. Menuhin searched to discover how to bring release to his bodily tension.

In 1951, as Menuhin describes it, a “life changing encounter” took place in the waiting room of an osteopath during a concert tour in New Zealand. Trying to fill the time while his sister Hephzibah had a treatment, Menuhin found a small book on Hatha Yoga. He writes:

I had stumbled across a key to unlock old enigmas, to make me aware of my capacity, encourage the physical ease missing from my upbringing, point the way to further comprehension of violin playing, and perhaps – if I persevered – stand me on my head in long-delayed fulfilment of childhood ambition.

Although he had never heard of yoga before this book, he gleaned enough from borrowing the book for the duration of his week-long tour of New Zealand to develop the rudiments of a regular asana practice.

Shortly after independence, Indian Prime Minister Jaraharlal Nehru gave an open invitation to world's best musicians to tour the newly independent country. In response, Yehudi Menuhin arranged tour India for two months, turning any profit from his concerts over to the Famine Fund for Madras. In 1952, the Menuhins stayed as personal guests of Prime Minster Nehru who shared Yehudi Menuhin’s interest in yoga. Famously, Nehru made a friendly challenge to Menuhin about his practice and the two were found in headstand as the butler came in to announce dinner. When this story reached the press, “gurus began to queue up wherever [Menuhin] went, each recommended by some prominent patron.” One of these prominent patrons fetched Iyengar from his home in Poona to visit Menuhin in Bombay.

After warning Iyengar that he only had five minutes in his busy schedule, Iyengar guided Menuhin into a deep relaxation and awoke not five minutes, but an hour later. At the time Menuhin was suffering from insomnia and this was perhaps the best gift possible. Upon awaking, Menuhin asked Iyengar to demonstrate his art and then enthusiastically requested Iyengar to teach him. During that tour of India he met Ravi Shankar, sitar virtuoso, and eventually persuaded him to perform in the west. Ravi's popularity had significant consequences for both music and vegetarianism in the following decades.

In 1954, Iyengar spent more than six weeks in Gstaad, Switzerland where Menuhin was performing as Menuhin's personal yoga instructor; this year also included a brief visit to London. This began fifteen years of regular interaction between Iyengar and Menuhin (see photo on the right), Iyengar travelling to Europe to teach Menuhin most summers between 1961-1984 as well as teaching Menuhin whenever he toured India. During the 1980s Menuhin made jazz recordings with Stephane Grappelli and of Eastern music with the great sitarist Ravi Shankar (see picture of Shankar).

Menuhin's interests outside music were broad. He was known as an environmentalist and practitioner of yoga. He was introduced to yoga in the 1950s and studied with B.K.S. Iyengar, a noted guru. Menuhin's daily regimen included 15 to 20 minutes of standing on his head. He also used yoga to relax before concerts. Menuhin advocated a vegetarian diet and warned of the dangers of eating white rice, white bread, and refined sugar.

Renowned, American born violinist and conductor, Yehudi Menuhin was a vegetarian and committed supporter of many social and environmental causes, with a great interest in Yoga and eastern religion. He was an anti-pollution activist and vegetarian advocate.

The following extract is by James Henry Cook, quoted by his daughter Kathleen Keleny in her book: The First Century of Health Foods

"Kathleen had music lessons from the age of 8 to 15 and then from 18 (when she typed for a composer in exchange for piano and singing lessons). As we lived near Birmingham she was able to attend most of the big Symphony concerts conducted by Adrian Boult in Birmingham Town Hall. She had free entrance because she was a programme seller. She heard Paderewski, Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin, a Vegetarian who said that his violin teacher was his Yoga teacher because he taught him how to relax. Much later when Kathleen was President of the Bath Vegetarian Society in her fifties, Yehudi Menuhin played at one of the Bath Festival events. He agreed to meet three Committee members after the concert and told Kathleen how very important his Vegetarian diet was to him and the work he did."

Yehudi Menuhin's BBC documentary (55mins)

From an article in the New York Times, 1982:

"When the violinist Yehudi Menuhin comes to New York the first thing he does is call his favorite natural-food store and place an order: porridge, yogurt, goat's milk, sprouted wheat bread, ice cream, butter, fruits, vegetables, tofu sandwiches and kefir. In each American city where he performs, Mr. Menuhin has a favourite place to shop, making his life as a traveling vegetarian more comfortable.
. . . Mr. Menuhin describes himself as ''self-indulgent'' about certain foods. He can eat an entire honeycomb at four breakfasts. ''I collect honey the way some people collect stamps,'' Mr. Menuhin said. He said he is particularly fond of Indian food because it is ''so stimulating and so delicious, the vegetables with all the spices and the dairy products, the flat bread, rice and the masses of fruit.'' He loves pasta, especially with pesto and white truffles. Mr. Menuhin also enjoys fine wine."