OBITUARIES

JEAN-PHILIPPE VASSEUR

The French violist Jean-Philippe Vasseur died on 20 May at the age of 76. In a career spanning more than five decades, he was one of the founder members of the period instrument group the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées.

Born in 1946, Vasseur studied with Léon Pascal at the Conservatoire de Paris. He then joined the Radio France Chamber Orchestra, followed by the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris, before turning to historically informed performance. He performed in the Orchestre de La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, and joined the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées in 1991. He was its founding first violist, performing all the group’s solo viola parts, and later formed the Turner Quartet with three other orchestra members. The quartet recorded a well-received album of Beethoven’s op.18 quartets for Harmonia Mundi.

Vasseur also taught for 30 years at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Lyon, and oversaw a number of publications for the viola. These included editing a 19th-century treatise on viola playing by Michel Joseph Gebauer, a book of Hoffmeister etudes and an edition of the Stamitz Viola Concerto. His recordings included The Art of the Viola D’Amore in 1984.

JONATHAN PEGIS

US cellist Jonathan Pegis, a long-serving member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for more than three decades, died on 29 March at the age of 61. Born in 1960 into a musical family in Rochester, NY, Pegis began his studies at Eastman School of Music’s preparatory department, where his first teacher was Alan Harris. He also studied with Lee Fiser, Paul Katz and Lynn Harrell.

Pegis embarked on undergraduate studies at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he joined LaSalle Quartet and violist Donald McInnes on chamber music tours of the US and Germany. Returning to Eastman as a postgraduate, he became a member of the Rochester Philharmonic in 1984, and in 1986 joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s cello section, where he remained until his retirement in 2018. He performed as part of the orchestra’s chamber music series, as well as the Northwestern University Winter Chamber Music Festival. He served on the faculty of Northwestern University from 1993 until 2012 where he taught orchestral cello studies.

TOM BLACKBURN

UK luthier and instrument dealer Tom Blackburn has died at the age of 77. For 50 years his London shop Blackburn Stringed Instruments was a mecca for London string musicians, and he was well known for his colourful character and humour.

Born in 1944 in West Ham, London, Blackburn joined the Essex Youth Orchestra as a boy. He studied with Hungarian violinist Marta Eitler, who later became one of his customers. He was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano, organ, composition and violin, the latter in Clarence Myerscough’s class. On graduation in the early 1960s, he played in many West End shows as a freelance violinist. He also gave some teaching and lecture recitals touring schools in the south of England.

Blackburn trained as a luthier in Nice, France. He had a passion for violins, especially of the French school, and opened Blackburn Stringed Instruments in South Kensington in 1969. He ran the business for over 50 years. Among notable sales, he negotiated the purchase of Myerscough’s 1570 Gasparo da Salò viola, now played by Amihai Grosz.