OBITUARIES

RICK MOONEY

Cellist and pedagogue Rick Mooney has died aged 70. A leading Suzuki teacher, he served as a guest tutor internationally, and published and prepared numerous cello teaching materials. Born in 1953, Mooney grew up in a musical family where he began studying the piano aged five and cello aged eight. Despite discouragement in his teens to pursue music and instead follow a career in computer science, he persevered with cello, studying with Victor Sazer and Eleonore Schoenfeld. ‘When I got Eleonore, I got a teacher who could suddenly, truly, address the issues I had, and help me to become more successful,’ Mooney said in an interview for the Music Institute of Chicago.

Mooney then went on to study the Suzuki method with Phyllis Glass at the University of Southern California and travelled to Japan in the spring of 1976. He served as a Suzuki guest teacher at institutes and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Asia, England, Australia and New Zealand. He was active with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, serving on the Board of Directors, on the Cello Committee and writing for the American Suzuki Journal. In addition to his private studio in southern California, he also founded and directed the National Cello Institute which sponsors a summer institute and winter workshop, and publishes music for cello ensembles.

CARLOS VILLA

Colombian violinist and conductor Carlos Villa died on 6 June at the age of 84. A concertmaster of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1960s and 70s, he could also be heard playing on recordings by artists including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones and Tony Bennett.

Born in 1939, Villa took up the piano before studying the violin. He recalled in 2015, in an interview at the Cartagena Music Festival: ‘When I was a child there were international festivals sponsored by the Proarte Musical Society. In the 1940s the best artists in the world came. For example, in La Heroica I learned of the existence of a violinist named Yehudi Menuhin.’ After graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music he went to Zurich to meet Menuhin, with whom he continued his studies.

In 1966 Otto Klemperer appointed Villa concertmaster of the New Philharmonia, a position he held for five years. It was during these years that he also befriended the Beatles, and his playing can be heard on Eleanor Rigby and A Day in the Life. In 1972 he was chosen to play the solos in The Great Waltz, MGM’s film about the life of Johann Strauss II. In l973 he left London to become conductor–concertmaster of the Camerata Academica in Salzburg, with which he toured extensively.

In 1980 Villa returned to Colombia, where he was named artistic director of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra as well as visiting professor of violin and chamber music at the National Conservatory. In his later years he was particularly involved in training the youth groups attached to the Orquesta.

SUNA KAN

Turkish violinist Suna Kan died on 11 June aged 86. The virtuoso enjoyed a celebrated solo, orchestral and teaching career in both her native Turkey and France.

Born on 21 October 1936 in Adana, Turkey, Kan began playing the violin at the age of five under the guidance of her father, Nuri Kan. She gave her first concerto performances with Ankara’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. She continued her violin studies in Ankara with Walter Gerhard, Izzet Albayrak and Licco Amar. She received a scholarship in 1949 to study in France, graduating from the Paris Conservatoire in 1952 under the tutelage of Gabriel Bouillon. Kan returned to Turkey in 1957 when she was appointed soloist of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, with which she performed and recorded numerous times throughout her career.

She founded the TRT Ankara Chamber Orchestra in the 1970s with conductor Gürer Aykal and her husband, music critic Faruk Güvenç. As a recitalist, she collaborated with the pianists Ferhunde Erkin, Gülay Uğurata and Cana Gürmen.

In addition to her performance career, Kan served as professor of violin at the Music and Performing Arts Department of Bilkent University in Ankara from 1986. She ceased performing in 2017 for health reasons.

In 1971, Kan received the honorary title of State Artist from the Turkish government, and in 1976, she was made a Chevalier of France’s Ordre national du Mérite.

FRANCIS KUTTNER

The US violin maker Francis Kuttner died on 3 June at the age of 72. Highly regarded for his instruments, he was one of the few luthiers to have been designated ‘Hors Concours’ by the Violin Society of America (VSA). The accolade is bestowed on makers who have won three gold medals at the VSA International Violin Making Competition; Kuttner won golds for a violin and cello in 1980, and again for a cello in 1984. He subsequently sat on juries for instrument making competitions in Mittenwald, Paris, Cremona and the US.

Born in 1951 in Washington DC, Kuttner attended Antioch College in Ohio. He took up lutherie in the early 1970s, and attended the Cremona International School of Violin Making. He then worked privately with the luthier Francesco Bissolotti, an associate of Simone Fernando Sacconi, and learnt the Cremonese violin making techniques. He returned to the US in 1978 where he opened a shop in San Francisco.

Latterly, Kuttner split his time between his workshops in San Francisco and Cremona. He was a member of the VSA, the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, and the Entente Internationale des Maîtres Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art (EILA). He wrote technical articles for The Strad on ‘lashing ribs to blocks’ and ‘clamping a cello back and top joint’, and wrote an account of the VSA’s 2011 competition in Cleveland.