Paul Zukofsky (b Brooklyn, NY, 22 Oct 1943). American violinist and conductor. He started music lessons when he was three and the violin at four. Two years later he first played in public, and at seven became a student of Ivan Galamian. He made his first orchestral appearance in 1953 with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and a formal début recital at Carnegie Hall in 1956. He specializes in 20th-century music, and has given the premières of concertos by Sessions (for violin, cello and orchestra), Wuorinen (for amplified violin and orchestra), Feldman (for violin and orchestra), the Scottish composer Iain Hamilton, Philip Glass, as well as works by Babbitt, Cage, Carter, Crumb, Xenakis, and Yun. One of the original Creative Associates at the Center for Creative and Performing Arts, SUNY, Buffalo, in 1964, Zukofsky taught at the New England Conservatory, the Berkshire Music Center, Manhattan School, The Juilliard School (where he was Director of Chamber Music Activities for some years, as well as conductor of the Juilliard Orchestra). He was program coordinator of the American Composers Series at the Kennedy Center. From 1976 to 1977, Zukofsky was a resident visitor at the Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, and was conductor of the Colonial Symphony Orchestra (Madison, New Jersey) from 1978 to 1987. In 1977, he founded the Zukofsky Seminar, and then the Icelandic Youth Orchestra, which gave a large number of Icelandic premieres of orchestral music, 20th century and otherwise. Zukofsky received the Minningarverdlaun D.V. (Cultural Achievement Award in Music) in 1988, and was also presented the Knight's Cross, Icelandic Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland. Zukofsky served as Artistic Director for the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) SUMMERGARDEN concert series from 1987 to 1992, and from 1992 to 1996, Zukofsky was director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California. Over the years, Zukofsky has been honored by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Fulbright Commission, among many others.

Zukofsky has an extensive list of recordings, which include more than 60 first releases, among them Penderecki's Capriccio and concertos by Sessions and William Schuman. In 1974 he recorded an anthology of American violin music written between 1940 and 1970; he has also recorded the Bach solo sonatas and partitas. His recording of the Paganini Twenty-four Caprices is also well received. He has edited works for violin by Cage and Steuermann, composed music himself, and had written An All-Interval Scale Book in 1977. He has been president of Musical Observations, Inc. since 1976, and has recorded extensively for various labels such as Vanguard, CBS, Victor Japan, but especially for CP2 Recordings.