OBITUARIES

IVRY GITLIS

Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis died on 24 December at the age of 98. For decades he was regarded as one of the most idiosyncratic of players, whose creativity and genius for experimentation came out in almost everything he attempted, be it as a violinist, festival organiser, actor or, in later years, as a Unesco goodwill ambassador.

Born on 25 August 1922, Gitlis began studying the violin when he was six years old. He graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris in 1935 with a first prize, then went on to study with Carl Flesch in Belgium, and with George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud.

Gitlis spent the war years performing for the British troops, and was able to make his Wigmore Hall debut in 1946. He performed extensively in America during the 1950s and returned to France the following decade. In 1972 he founded the Festival de Vence, and was a creative force behind events such as the Saint André de Cubzac, Alfortville and Bonifacio music festivals. He carried on playing and giving masterclasses well into his nineties, and became a Unesco goodwill ambassador in 1990.

He played the ‘Sancy’ Stradivari of 1713.

A full obituary byTully Potter will appear in the March 2021 edition of The Strad.

SHEILA NELSON

The violinist Sheila Nelson died on 16 November aged 84.

In a career spanning more than 50 years she created a great deal of educational music and played with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Menuhin Orchestra. But it is as a teacher that she was best known and most highly regarded.

Born in 1936, Nelson studied as an undergraduate at the Royal College of Music in London. She also studied at the University of Birmingham and in Denmark, and was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, a distinction limited to 300 musicians. In 1976 she went to the US to study the teaching methods of Paul Rolland. On her return to the UK she was invited by the Inner London Education Authority to lead a string project in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets. This scheme, involving teams of teachers giving string tuition to whole classes as part of the normal school curriculum was the subject of a six-part documentary series called Beginners Please. Over the course of her career she travelled worldwide as a teacher and workshop facilitator.

Nelson also wrote educational music, with best-selling publications including the Essential String Method series - which taught musicianship alongside instrumental skills. Other music instruction and repertoire books included Christmas Tunes for strings; Technitunes for individual strings or ensemble; Octotunes for individual strings or ensemble; Quartet Club for string quartet; Stringsongs for violin/viola and piano; and The Violin and Viola: History, Structure, Techniques.

EUGENE WRIGHT

Double bassist Eugene Wright, the last survivor of the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s original line-up, died on 30 December at the age of 97. Known in jazz circles as The Senator’, Wright was widely praised for his command of a broad range of styles. Among the other stars he worked with during his career were Erroll Garner, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Carmen McRae and Cal Tjader.

Born on 29 May 1923, Wright originally studied the cornet in school but taught himself how to play the upright bass. In his twenties he led his own 16-piece band, the Dukes of Swing, and played with the Lonnie Simmons group. He later studied the bass privately with tutors including Paul Gregory.

Having performed with artists including Count Basie, tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb, clarinettist Buddy DeFranco, Wright was hired by Dave Brubeck in 1958 to perform in the US Department of State tour of Europe and Asia. He went on to record more than 30 albums with the quartet, alongside Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto sax and Joe Morello on drums.

In 1960 the quartet was booked for a 25- date tour of colleges in the American South, but Brubeck cancelled all but two dates when the colleges refused to allow Wright to perform, insisting on a white substitute instead. Brubeck’s principled stance against racial injustice cost him $40,000.

The quartet disbanded in 1968 after Brubeck decided to focus on composition. Wright led his own group on a tour of black colleges in 1969 and 1970, and worked in the Monty Alexander Trio, also recording film soundtracks and working in television. He continued to perform occasionally with Brubeck, including in Moscow in 1988, at a state dinner for Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Wright also served as head of the jazz department at the University of Cincinnati and was head of the advisory board in the International Society of Bassists’ jazz division.

GITLIS PHOTO TAMAR MOSHINSKY

TASSO ADAMOPOULOS

The violist and tutor HBI Tasso Adamopoulos I died on 3 January I aged 76. Born in Paris, Adamopoulos first studied with Henry Rotenberg at the Rubin Conservatory of Music in Haifa, Israel, then with Òdòn Pârtos at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. He received a scholarship from the Norman Foundation and was noticed by Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein.

On his return to Europe he studied with Ervin Schiffer in the Netherlands and became viola soloist in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He then moved to France where he gained the same role at the Orchestre national de France under Lorin Maazel. He joined the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine in 1990.

Adamopoulos taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon and the Conservatoire de Bordeaux Jacques Thibaud, where he was responsible for the viola class. He gave masterclasses around the world and formed the Bordeaux Quartet with Stéphane Rougier, Cécile Rouviére and Etienne Péclard. A sought- after chamber musician, he was part of the Sartory Trio with violinist Roland Daugareil and cellist Étienne Péclard.