OBITUARIES

ANDREW DAWES

Canadian violinist Andrew Dawes died on 30 October 2022 aged 82. He was the founding first violinist of the Toronto-based Orford Quartet, with which he played from its inception in 1965 until 1991.

Born in High River, Alberta in 1940, Dawes studied with Lorand Fenyves at the Conservatoire de Musique Genève, where he won the school’s Prix de Virtuosité in 1964. The following year he founded the Orford Quartet with Kenneth Perkins, Terence Helmer and Marcel Saint-Cyr. When Fenyves moved to Toronto to take up a teaching position at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, the quartet followed him, beginning its association with the university in 1968. The quartet members joined the faculty in 1972, where Dawes served as professor of music.

With the Orford Quartet, Dawes played in over 3,000 performances over six continents and made more than 60 recordings.

In addition to his professorship in Toronto, Dawes was also professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia School of Music and a distinguished visiting scholar and Catherine Thornhill Steele chair in music at McGill University. He served as jury chair for the Banff International String Quartet Competition from 1983 to 2004, as well as the London International String Quartet Competition.

Dawes performed on a 1770 Guadagnini violin now known as the ‘Dawes, de Long Tearse’. It is now played by Robert Uchida, concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

GEOFF NUTTALL

American violinist Geoff Nuttall has died after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer, aged 56. He was co-founder and first violinist of the St Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ). Founded in 1989, the quartet recorded exclusively with EMI Classics, received two Grammy nominations and won multiple awards including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Young Concert Artist Auditions.

As a teacher, Nuttall was a member of the string faculty at Stanford University, where the SLSQ was ensemble-inresidence since 1999. The SLSQ had also been graduate ensemble-inresidence at the Juilliard School, Yale University and Hartt School of Music.

From 2009 until his death, Nuttall was director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, where he brought together many chamber musicians with spontaneous collaborations, and was known for delighting audiences with his engaging, warm and insightful introductions.

JOHN LUDLOW

British violinist John Ludlow died on 29 September 2022 at the age of 91. Throughout his life he worked as an orchestral leader, educator and mentor.

Born in Birmingham in 1931, Ludlow pursued musical studies at London’s Royal College of Music with Henry Holst and Manoug Parikian. In 1948 he was the founding leader of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, an ensemble he continued to support throughout his life. In 2014 he loaned his c.1685 ‘Sauret’ Stradivari violin, worth £1m, to then 18-year-old student Roberto Ruisi.

Following his national service, Ludlow joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was then appointed leader of what was the Sadler’s Wells Opera Orchestra in 1957. In the early 1960s he joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra, moving on to be coleader of the Royal Opera House orchestra.

Leaving Covent Garden to enter the freelance world in the late 1960s, Ludlow played for Yehudi Menuhin’s Bath Festival Orchestra, and also become co-leader of the London Mozart Players. He also led several orchestras such as the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra with violinist Hugh Bean, the London Concert Orchestra and the English National Orchestra.

He returned to the RCM as a violin professor in 1970, where he remained in post for 27 years.

PHILIPPE AÏCHE

French violinist and conductor Philippe Aïche, a long-time concertmster of the Orchestre de Paris, has died aged 59. He began his violin studies aged eight and studied violin with Christian Ferras and chamber music with Jean Hubeau at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Aïche joined the Orchestre de Paris in 1985 and quickly rose to the concertmaster’s position. He performed internationally as a soloist, including the premiere performance of Eric Tanguy’s Second Violin Concerto in 1997.

In addition to his orchestral and solo work, Aïche worked as a conductor. In 2001, he directed the Orchestre de Paris in a performance Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 at the French prime minister’s residence, Hôtel Matignon, in Paris. He continued to maintain a strong bond with his alma mater as musical director of the Conservatoire Laureates Orchestra.

TETSUO MATSUDA

NUTTALL PHOTO MARCO BORGGREVE. AÏCHE PHOTO KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU

Japanese luthier Tetsuo Matsuda died on 1 November aged 77. One of the first violin makers from Japan to train in the West, he made his home in Chicago from the early 1980s.

Born in 1945 in the town of Akita on the island of Honshu, Matsuda moved to Tokyo in his early twenties to begin an apprenticeship at a guitar shop. He also learnt to play the guitar and violin. In 1977 he enrolled at the Cremona International School of Violin Making. Four years later, one of his violins won fifth prize at the Wieniawski Competition, and in 1982 he came second at a making competition in Cremona.

After graduating, Matsuda moved to Chicago, US, where he worked in a violin shop. In 1984 he won a gold medal at the Violin Society of America’s lutherie competition, but it was only in 1993 that he finally set up his own shop in Barrington, a suburb of Chicago. He later served on the jury of the Wieniawski Competition.