Vladimir Heifitz was a composer, conductor, pianist and arranger. Born March 28, 1893 in the town of Chashniki (Vitebsk Province, Russian Empire, now Belarus) in a musically gifted family. His father, Yefim, his younger brother, Ben-Or, and his cousin, Yasha, were violinists.

Vladimir Heifitz graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in piano. He made his debut in 1918 in Warsaw. He performed with cellist Grigory Pyatigorsky, worked as an accompanist of Fedor Chaliapin.

In 1921 he emigrated to the United States.

In 1923-1924 he was the accompanist of Iza Kremer. Later he worked as musical director of the theater Rudolf Schildkraut, wrote music for “Yiddish art tiietr / Jewish art theater” and Volksbine, conducted the choir “Poalei Tsion / Workers of Zion”, in the choir “Idisher culture gesellschaft / Society for Jewish Culture”, created his own choir “Heifets” Zinger / Singers Heifetz, “with whom he appeared on American radio and even toured in Israel (1952), etc.

Heifetz also worked as a conductor in American theaters, did arrangements for the choir of the Don Cossacks, wrote music for movies. The most famous of his work, of course, was written by him in the original music for the film by Sergei Eisenstein “Battleship Potemkin.” Heifetz was also the author of music for two Yiddish movies: “Green Felder / Green Field” by Jacob Ben-Amy (1937) and “Mirale Efros” by Joseph Bern (1939).

Vladimir Heifetz was the author of “The Biblical Suite for the Symphony Orchestra,” the “New Era” symphony, the opera “Pharaoh” and the oratorio “Golem,” as well as more than 80 songs in Yiddish.

In 1962 he became a member of ASCAP.

Vladimir Heifitz died of a heart attack on May 3, 1970 on the stage in Deer Park, Long Island during the concert of Sidor Belarsky.