OBITUARIES

SEBASTIAN HESS

German cellist Sebastian Hess has died of a brain aneurysm. He was 5 0 years old.

Born in 1971, Hess studied at the Universities of Music in Würzburg and Munich with Julius Berger and Helmar Stiehler. He also studied exclusively with William Pleeth in London, and was a selected student of Mstislav Rostropovich.

Hess embarked on an international solo performing career from an early age, making his debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Bernstein at the age of 18. He appeared at numerous festivals and was on the faculty of the Kronberg Cello Academy.

As a soloist he appeared with orchestras including the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists and the Berlin Academy of Ancient Music.

Hess’s versatility is reflected in his extensive recording output, and his performances ranged from Baroque to modern repertoire, which led him to work closely with contemporary composers such as Jörg Widmann and Hans Werner Henze.

ELEKTRA KURTIS

Violinist and composer Elektra Kurtis has died after being diagnosed with brain cancer four years ago. She was the founder of both the New York Jazz Philharmonic and of Ensemble Elektra, a New York-based collective of world jazz musicians of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Kurtis grew up in Poland, where she studied at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. During her upbringing, she was heavily influenced by the contemporary music of the 1960s and 70s, as well as the music of Bartók and folk music of her Greek heritage. She also studied at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Finland.

Kurtis moved to New York, where she embedded herself in the local jazz scene collaborating with jazz artists such as Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Bob Stewart, Lester Bowie and Billy Bang. She was at home in a variety of styles, combining jazz with influences from her own ethnic heritage as well as her classical violin training.

With Ensemble Elektra she toured Finland and the US, recording several albums between 2000 and 2015. In 2008 she founded the New York Jazz Philharmonic, with the aim of extending jazz beyond the traditional instrumentation of jazz bands and incorporating symphony orchestra instruments.

GEORGE MRAZ

Jazz bassist George Mraz died on 1 6 September at the a ge of 77. Born Jiří Mráz in what is now t he Czech Republic, he began his musical studies on the violin aged seven, and started playing jazz in high school after hearing recordings of Louis Armstrong at the age of twelve.

He once said in an interview, ‘They had an hour of his music on one Sunday in between all these light operettas and stuff they played on the radio. Then the strange voice of Satchmo singing was quite a shock. “How can he get away with a voice like that?” I thought. But by the time the hour was over I decided I liked it better than anything I heard that day, so I started looking into jazz.’

Mraz attended the Prague Conservatoire in 1961 as a bassist and graduated in 1966. He then went to Munich and played clubs and concerts throughout Germany and Europe. In 1968 Mraz moved to Boston on a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, receiving a call from Dizzy Gillespie to join his group in New York less than a year later. Mraz also toured with Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson for two years, continuing afterwards to work with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra for the next six years. In the late 1970s George worked with Stan Getz, the New York Jazz Quartet, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie and for over ten years with Tommy Flanagan.

Mraz led his own quartet with pianist Richie Beirach, drummer Billy Hart and tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, with whom he made several recordings. He was renowned for being the firstcall bassist for many jazz artists.

JAN STANIENDA

Polish violinist Jan Stanienda has died at the age of 68.

Born in 1953 in Bytom, southern Poland, Stanienda studied at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. He was a member of the Polish Chamber Orchestra since 1975, becoming concertmaster and soloist in 1977. In 1976 he was a prizewinner at the Nicolò Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa. He was also concertmaster of Sinfonia Varsovia from 1986 to 1990 and led the Orchestre de Chambre National de Toulouse. In 2006 he received the Wrocław Music Award.

A prolific recording artist, Stanienda recorded with Aperto, Linn Records, Pavane, Kos Warsaw Records and DUX. He was the creator and artistic director of the ‘Arsenal Nights’ chamber music festival in Wrocław.

NONA PYRON

Cellist, educator, researcher and publisher Nona Pyron has died in Santa Barbara at the a ge of 88. Born in 1933, Pyron studied at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, and the State Academy of Music in Munich, receiving a masters degree and doctorate in cello performance from the University of Southern California. She served on the music faculty at Willamette University in Salem, OR, in addition to being a member of the Portland Symphony for two and a half years.

Pyron was a leading researcher of the early history of the cello. Her research uncovered in excess of 8,000 works from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, including many collections that were then behind the Iron Curtain.

She founded Grancino Editions, which published many of the works found from the Baroque and Classical eras.

Among many books Pyron edited was Cello, in the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides series, which contained the teaching philosophies of British cellist and pedagogue William Pleeth.