Born in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Bornoff studied in his native city with Gus Hughes (1916–18),
John Waterhouse (1919–20), I.S. Garbovitsky (1922-4), and
Jean de Rimanoczy (1925-8). He was a member of the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1923 to 1936 and served as concertmaster of the
Winnipeg String Orchestra from 1925 to 1928. He also played in the orchestras of the
CKY and
CJRC radio stations from 1934 to 1943 and played regularly in orchestras at the
CRBC and
CBC from 1925 to 1943. He also played throughout Western Canada as a concert violinist. In 1937 Bornoff founded the Bornoff School of Music in Winnipeg, serving as the school's director until 1947. His wife, pianist and contralto Mary Ada Baron Bornoff, taught with him at the school. He then taught violin and chamber music at
Columbia University in
New York City from 1945 to 1953. He became
Professor of
Music Education at
Boston University in 1953 where he taught for the next two decades. In 1973 he was appointed professor emeritus at BU and that same year joined the violin faculty at the
Boston Conservatory. In 1980 he became executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of String Education. He died in Boston in 1998. Among his notable pupils are
Lloyd Blackman,
J. Chalmers Doane,
Donna Grescoe,
Stanley Kolt,
Michael A. Levine,
Joseph M. Woods and
Gerald Stanick. ==See also==