OBITUARIES

CHARLES TREGER

American violinist Charles Treger died on 12 January 2023 at the age of 87. He enjoyed an international career as a performer following his victory at the 1962 Wieniawski International Competition in Poznań, the first American to win in the competition’s history, during the Cold War.

Treger was born in 1935 in Iowa City and began violin lessons aged seven. He studied at the Aspen Music School and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. His first prize at the Wieniawski Competition aged 27 prompted a congratulatory telegram from President Kennedy and ignited his five-decade international career. Treger returned to Poznań in 1996 to serve on the jury for the competition’s eleventh edition.

Treger became a visiting professor at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT, in 1972, where he also gave masterclasses. In 1984 he succeeded Ivan Galamian as president and director of the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, NY. He was appointed visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, where he served as a visiting professor for several years. He also served on foundations and arts organisations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.

MICHAELA PAETSCH

US violinist Michaela Paetsch died on 20 January 2023 at the age of 61. Throughout her life she performed at major international venues as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, and was the first female violinist to record the 24 Paganini Caprices for solo violin in 1987. Born in 1961 in Colorado Springs, CO, Paetsch studied with Ivan Galamian at Meadowmount School of Music and Szymon Goldberg at Yale University and at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Paetsch’s international career took her to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, and the Library of Congress in Washington DC, as well as to solo engagements internationally. She was a member of the quartet ensemble incanto, with which she performed, toured and recorded.

Paetsch played on a 1704 violin by Gaetano Pasta. ‘This violin reminds me of the childhood instrument my father found in Pueblo, Colorado,’ she once said. ‘I fell in love with it at first sight (and sound!). The name Pasta is a special one. I cherish its dark sensuous beauty and amazing variety of colours – it reacts so well in all conditions.’

CHARLES WETHERBEE

US violinist Charles Wetherbee died on 9 January 2023 aged 57. In his career he was a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral concertmaster, teacher, coach and collaborator.

Born in 1966 in Buffalo, NY, Wetherbee gave his first performances at the age of six. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Aaron Rosand and made his debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov. He made appearances with orchestras around the world and held the post of principal second violin with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, as well as the concertmaster post of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Columbus, OH. Since 2012 he served as associate professor of violin at the University of Colorado Boulder, College of Music. He was also concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1988 Wetherbee toured Asia, including performances in Seoul, Korea, as part of the Olympic Arts Festival. In the same year he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall as a participant in the American Music Competition. In 1990 he travelled to the Persian Gulf to perform for the armed forces. He gave the Russian premiere of John Corigliano’s Violin Concerto in 2007.

In addition to chamber collaborations with numerous ensembles, Wetherbee was the first violinist of the Carpe Diem Quartet, which toured the US and abroad with its wide repertoire encompassing classical, gypsy, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired genres.

BOYD POULSEN

US violin and bow maker Boyd Poulsen died on 5 January 2023 at the age of 87. As well as making, repairing and restoring stringed instruments and bows, he was highly regarded as a teacher. He also played a number of instruments to a professional standard, particularly the double bass.

Poulsen was born in 1935 in Salt Lake City, UT, to musician parents. He began his career as an instrumentalist, studying the saxophone at Utah State University and subsequently moving to Los Angeles where he performed as a double bassist. In the mid-1960s he began building guitars for shops in the LA area, as well as repairing instruments. Italian violin maker Alfio Batelli became a mentor after they met at the shop of Hans Weisshaar.

Bow maker John Bolander introduced Poulsen to making bows in the mid- 70s, and he continued learning with William Salchow in New York and Stéphane Thomachot in Paris. After a few years as foreman at Cremona Musical instruments, San Francisco, he ran his own shop in San Mateo, CA, until the 1990s. He then studied forestry at Columbia Community College and become a naturalist, working for the State Park System as an expert in lichens.

Poulsen attended the bow making workshops at Oberlin College and inspired a generation of bow makers, luthiers and restorers. In the early 1990s he served as president of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. He was also a founder member of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative. In 2007 he moved to Albuquerque, NM, where he was associated with the Robertson and Sons violin shop and fulfilled orders for basses.