David Oistrakh called Oscar Shumsky "one of the world's greatest violinists". This is not hyperbole but a sentiment echoed by many distinguished musicians. Among his colleagues, Shumsky was considered to be one of the greatest violinists, on the level of Kreisler and Heifetz.

In an age which included such phenomenal violin prodigies as Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci, Oscar Shumsky stood out. Born to Russian immigrant parents in Philadelphia on March 23, 1917, Shumsky began playing the violin at age three. His outstanding talent was recognized early in his life, and Leopold Stokowski pronounced him " the most astounding genius I have ever heard". In 1925 Stokowski invited the young prodigy to appear with him and the Philadelphia Orchestra as soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5. That same year Shumsky began studying with Leopold Auer in New York, becoming the great pedagogue's youngest student ever.

Shumsky performed several hundred concerts in his youth, often appearing with the pianist and conductor Ernest Schelling, founder of the young people's symphony concerts. On one occasion Schelling arranged for Shumsky to play for Fritz Kreisler. After performing for the great Austrian violinist, the prodigy played Kreisler's then unpublished Beethoven cadenzas from memory (Shumsky had only heard Kreisler play the Beethoven concerto in concert twice before!). Deeply impressed by the child's immense talent, Kreisler predicted that he would become one of the finest violinists of the century.

Shumsky eventually enrolled at the prestigious Curtis Institute in his hometown of Philadelphia, and, after Leopold Auer's death in 1930, continued his studies with Efrem Zimbalist. After his graduation from Curtis in 1938, Shumsky was personally invited by Toscanini to join the NBC Symphony where he remained for two seasons. William Primrose, who described Shumsky as "one of the greatest virtuosos I have ever heard", invited him to lead the Primrose Quartet as first violinist (with Josef Gingold as second violinist and Harvey Shapiro on the cello). To this day, the quartet's commercial recordings of Haydn, Brahms and Smetana quartets, and the Schumann Piano Quintet (all reissued on Biddulph LAB 052/53) are prized by connoisseurs of chamber music.

The advent of World War II found Shumsky in the US Navy where he appeared every month as soloist with the navy band orchestra, performing for Washington officials and their guests. After the war Shumsky was in great demand for studio work, and he often served as concertmaster for the "RCA Victor Symphony" or the "Columbia Symphony".

He was also appointed as solo violinist for New York's NBC radio network. This was the "golden age" of American radio, and these national weekly broadcasts, often with Earl Wild or Leonid Hambro at the piano, instilled the luminous Shumsky tone as a model of violin sound to millions of listeners.

In the mid-1950s Shumsky became co-director with Glenn Gould, of the Stratford Festival in Canada. They performed together frequently in duo sonatas and were often joined by cellist Leonard Rose in trios. In these years, in addition to his performances as violinist and violist, Shumsky became active as a conductor. He also established himself as a superb teacher, on the faculties of the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, as well as Yale University.

Shumsky's discography includes recordings of the complete Bach solo works and Mozart violin sonatas (with Artur Balsam as pianist), as well as concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and short pieces by Kreisler. He also recorded the violin sonatas of Grieg, Dohnanyi and Leo Weiner for Biddulph recordings in London. In addition, his superlative playings of the six sonatas for solo violin by Eugene Ysaye remains one of the finest recordings ever released.