Yuri Yankelevitch`s benefit performance in the charity concert in favor of his fellow townsman Vissarion Shebalin, who later became a famous composer, was especially symbolic.
The money raised by means of the concert was spent on sending the talented young man off to study at the Moscow Conservatory, the rector of which he was later destined to become, having created an absolutely unique school for composers and having brought up a whole galaxy of composers with world-wide recognition.
In 1923 Yuri Yankelevitch himself joins the class of Professor I. R. Nalbandyan (also a pupil of Leopold Auer) at the Leningrad Conservatory. On passing his final exams with merit, he received the following reference from the Examination Board and Rector A.K. Glazunov: «... a career as a virtuoso violinist is doubtlessly his calling… ».
Then Yuri Yankelevitch successfully graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and did a postgraduate course in the class of Professor A.I. Yampolsky – still another pupil of Leopold Auer. It is a rare fortune to have been taught by such outstanding teachers, and Yuri Yankelevitch worthily accepted the baton passed on to him.
For all his brilliant masterly performer`s abilities, he devoted his life entirely to teaching. During his long pedagogic career, Professor Yankelevitch nurtured over 200 pupils, many of whom, such as Victor Tretyakov, Vladimir Spivakov, Tatyana Grindenko, Irina Bochkova, Grigory Zhislin, Pavel Kogan, Lev Marquis, Dora Schwarzberg and Alexandre Brussilovsky enjoy world-wide acclaim.
The name of Yuri I. Yankelevitch rightfully holds one of the most honorable places in the record of modern violin teaching, as he was not a mere successor of the great names that comprise the Moscow Violin School, but he was the founder of his own – the School of Yankelevitch.
Violinists from all over the world came to be taught by him, and today his former pupils are notable for their high professional skills, constant aspiration to self-perfection, brightness and virtuosity, and their active stand in life. All of them bear the high rank of Yankelevitch School pupils with flying colors, transferring the knowledge they received to new generations of violinists. It is noteworthy that the winners of many prestigious international competitions are now the "grandchildren" of Yuri Yankelevitch.
It is impossible to overestimate the significance of his personality both in musical performing art and in teaching. Today the Omsk Children's Music School No. 1 and the String Department of the Shebalin Musical College are proud of being named after Yuri Isaevich Yankelevitch.