Celebrated Grimsby opera singer Norma Procter dies at 89

Norma Procter, who has died aged 89, was a contralto with a rich, creamy voice in the style of Clara Butt and Kathleen Ferrier Norma Procter (15 February 1928, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire – 2 May 2017, Grimsby) was an English contralto who studied with Roy Henderson. She was especially known for her oratorio and recital work, but also performed in opera, with her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1961 as Gluck's Orpheus. She also sang Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia for Britten at the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival. She is particularly known for her recordings of Mahler. The beauty smiling, and sweet beguiling.. (Norma Procter - contralto)

David Pell (February 26, 1925 – May 8, 2017) was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader

Dave Pell (February 26, 1925 – May 8, 2017) was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader born in New York City. He was best known for leading a cool jazz octet in the 1950s. In 1953, he began working with his own ensembles, mostly as an octet: Pell on tenor sax, another saxophone (either a baritone or an alto), trumpet and trombone, guitar, and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section). Among the octet players were Pepper Adams, Benny Carter, Mel Lewis, Red Mitchell, Marty Paich, Art Pepper and, early his career, John Williams. These ensembles recorded in the 1950s for Atlantic, Kapp, Coral, Capitol, and RCA Victor; alongside this, he played as a sideman for Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa. He also produced in the 1950s and 1960s for Tops, Uni and Liberty; among his credits in production were some singles by Gary Lewis & the Playboys. WIKIPEDIA

Dave Pell (ts), Bob Gordon (bs), Don Fagerquist (tp), Ray Sims (tb), Donn Trenner (p,cel), Tony Rizzi (g), Buddy Clark (b), Bill Richmond (ds) Album：" Dave Pell / Jazz & Romantic Places " Recorded：Hollywood, April, 1955

Francis Travis (9 July 1921 – 28 April 2017) was an American-born Swiss orchestral conductor.

Conductor Francis Travis was born in Detroit, Michigan, his advanced musical studies were at the University of Zurich, with a Ph.D. in musicology after writing a dissertation on Giuseppe Verdi. He was a pupil of Hermann Scherchen, later his assistant. He was opera director in Basel for two years, then Trier, Germany, for two years and was regular guest conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. His discography includes works by Joachim Raff, Heinz Holliger with whom he collaborated, and Berlioz and Ravel. He also premiered Swiss and Swedish music. From 1990 to 1995 he lived in Tokyo with many concerts with Japanese orchestras and choruses. He was professor for Orchestral Conducting at Tokyo National University for Music and the Fine Arts. Travis has returned virtually each year to Japan for engagements, including concerts at the Kusatsu Summer Music Festival in 2001 and 2006. Travis later lived in Munich where he died. (from WIKIPEDIA)

  90th Birthday Concert - Francis Travis - Tokyo Geidai Strings - 15 July 2011

Eduard Brunner (14 July 1939 – 27 April 2017) was a classical clarinetist.

Eduard Brunner began his musical education in Basel (Switzerland) where he was born, continuing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Cahuzac. For thirty years he was the first Clarinet of the Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and later he was Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Saarbrücken (Germany). His concert engagements as soloist and in chamber ensembles took him around the world and he frequently participated in Music Festivals at Lockenhaus, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, amongst others. He also undertook numerous Master Classes in different countries and has an extensive discography of over 250 works for Clarinet. He edited and recorded the complete works of Carl Stamitz and Ludwig Spohr for Clarinet.

  WIKIPEDIA

F. Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet and Piano / Eduard Brunner & Alice Burla

Agnes Giebel (10 August 1921 – 24 April 2017) was a German classical soprano.

Agnes Giebel was born in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, where she lived the first years of her life. She studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen and made her first public appearance as a singer in 1947. Her career lasted until the 1990s during which she established a wide-ranging discography.

  WIKIPEDIA

Dorothy Dorow (22 August 1930 - 15 April 2017) was an English soprano.

Dorow debuted in London in 1958. She has sung world-premieres of works by such composers as György Ligeti, Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Dallapiccola, Sylvano Bussotti and Luigi Nono. She is also noted for her performances of the vocal works of Igor Stravinsky. Dorow performed internationally including at the Kraków Philharmonic. After several years of living abroad (including the Netherlands) she retired in 1992 to Duloe in Cornwall.

  TELEGRAPH OBIT

British cellist Olga Hegedus has died aged 96

British musician Olga Hegedus, longtime co-principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, died at the age of 96 on 22 April 2017. In 1981, Ms Hegedus was one of a number of selected musicians invited to perform at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

  The STRAD Obit


 VIDEO: J.S. Bach: "Bist du bei mir", BWV 508 · Kiri Te Kanawa · Christopher Bowers-Broadbent · Olga Hegedus 

Russian violinist Grigori Zhislin has died, aged 71

Grigori Yefimovich Zhislin (Russian Григорий Ефимович Жислин; 14 May 1945 in Leningrad – 2 May 2017 in Berlin) was a Russian violinist and pedagogue. He studied with Yuri Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory. At the age of 22, he won the First Prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa and the Silver Medal at the Queen Elizabeth Competition. Zhislin's repertoire contains concertos and recitals of all genres, for violin as well as for viola. As a soloist, Zhislin appeared with the Leningrad/St Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, State Symphony Orchestra, RRS (Mailand, Turin), RBC Orchestras (Australian), Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Symphonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Krakow Philharmonic, Stockholm Radio Orchestra. He played under the conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Aldo Ceccato, Erik Klass, Karl Österreicher, Kirill Kondrashin, Dimitri Kitajenko, Alexander Lasarev, Arvid Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Woldemar Nelsson, Sauilus Sondeckis, Tadeusz Strugala, Natan Rachlin, Noeme Jarvi, Vladimir Fedosseyev. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: G.F Haendel – Passacaglia / Robert Kabara, Grigori Zhislin, Sinfonietta Cracovia 

Former London Sinfonietta leader Nona Liddell has died aged 89 ..

Nona Liddell (9 June 1927 – 18 April 2017) was a British violinist. She was a soloist, leader of chamber music ensembles, and a teacher. For many years she was leader of the London Sinfonietta. Nona Liddell's first solo appearance was in 1947 at the Proms, playing Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult. It was the first of six appearances at the Proms; in 1983 she gave the Proms premiere of Kurt Weill's Violin Concerto, with the London Sinfonietta, a work which they also recorded. From 1957 to 1973 she was leader of the English String Quartet, and she later led the Richards Piano Quartet and London Piano Quartet. In the 1950s and 1960s she played with the English Chamber Orchestra, playing works by Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival. She first worked with the London Sinfonietta in 1969, and was appointed leader in 1970, remaining until 1994; she often appeared with them as a soloist. She was leader of the Monteverdi Orchestra from 1973 to 1979, and appeared as guest leader of other orchestras. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Kenneth Leighton: Violin Concerto [Brian Priestman-BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra-Nona Liddell, violin].

New York broadcasting legend and Sarasota resident June LeBell has died

Official Bio

 LeBell was a fixture at New York City’s WQXR. Hired on as the first female announcer on a major U.S. commercial classical music radio station, she hung up the mic in 2002, but returned on air in South Florida with a weekly Sunday afternoon one-hour interview program for WSMR-FM titled June LeBell’s Music Conversations. June LeBell, New York’s first woman presenter on a commercial classical station, has died of ovarian cancer on her 73rd birthday. She was frontline cultural interviewer on WQXR, conducting five to ten interviews a week. She moved later to WSMR. ad week

 VIDEO: New York broadcasting legend and Sarasota resident June LeBell talks about her music/talk show on WSMR. Video by Marty Clear, Bradenton Herald. Bradenton.com.

Endrik Wottrich, German tenor, has died from a heart attack aged 52

German tenor who sang at Covent Garden and Bayreuth; ten years ago he created a stir by alleging that drug taking and alcohol abuse were rife within the world of opera.

TELEGRAPH OBIT

 VIDEO: Endrik Wottrich in Memoriam (13.10.1964-26.4.2017) Endrik Wottrich singt "Oh quand je dors" von Franz Liszt

Death of an international US mezzo, aged 54, Kristine (Kris) Jepson

(PR Photo by Henry-Grossman)


WIKIPEDIA: Kristine Jepson was an American mezzo-soprano born in Iowa. She studied music at Indiana University and later resided in New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She appeared in over 25 operas at houses across Europe and the United States including the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the San Francisco Opera. She also appeared in the first performances of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera, premièring the role of Kitty Oppenheimer. She was part of the second cast (with Susan Graham in the principal cast) in the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the debut run of Dead Man Walking with the San Francisco Opera. Jepson died at the age of 54 on April 21, 2017.

 VIDEO: Piotr Beczala/Kristine Jepson: Clair de lune/Il faut nous séparer/Werther/Massenet-Frankfurt 2005

German tenor Manfred Jung has died.

Manfred Jung was born on July 9, 1940 in Oberhausen, Germany. He was an actor-tenor, known for Der Ring des Nibelungen (1980) and Wagner (1981). He died on April 14, 2017 in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. VIDEO: Siegfried - Finale - Manfred Jung & Gwyneth Jones Der Ring des Nibelungen: Festspielhaus Bayreuth in 1980.

Death of a popular Verdi soprano, 79... Rita Orlandi Malaspina

The Italian soprano Rita Orlandi, who was billed as Rita Orlandi Malaspina after her marriage to the bass Massimiliano Malaspino, died in Milan on April 8, 2017. Originally from Bologna, she made her 1963 debut in Giovanna d’Arco, reached La Scala three years later in Forza and specialised throughout her international career in Verdi roles, though she also sang Elsa in Lohengrin and, inevitably, Tosca. For a soprano of her stature, she made comparatively few recordings. Orlandi-Malaspina enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with La Scala, where she made her debut on 29 April 1966 as Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni with a cast that included Luigi Ottolini, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicola Zaccaria, Bianca Maria Casoni and Renato Capecchi. Other Verdi roles she was admired for at that house were Aida, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Leonara in Il trovatore, and Odabella in Attila. She also appeared as a guest artist at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Teatro di San Carlo, the Teatro Carlo Felice, La Fenice, the Teatro Regio di Parma, the Teatro Massimo, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi. She was a regular performer at the Arena di Verona Festival where she sang in 1968–1969 and 1971–1972. She also made several appearances at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. WIKIPEDIA

Kathleen Cassello: One of 'Three Sopranos' has died, aged 58

Kathleen Ann Cassello (August 13, 1958, Wilmington, Delaware – April 12, 2017, München, Germany) was an American-born opera singer. Since winning first prize in the Salzburg Mozart competition in 1985, she toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and North America. A graduate of the University of Delaware, she received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1980. In the late 1990s, she toured with Kallen Esperian and Cynthia Lawrence as “The Three Sopranos”.

  WIKIPEDIA | SLIPPED DISC

 VIDEO:

Maggini Quartet violinist David Angel has died, aged 62

"THE STRAD" April 12, 2017

 Angel, who was conducting a Maggini Quartet course in Oxford at the time of his death, performed as the British ensemble’s second violinist since its inception in 1988 Maggini Quartet co-founder and second violinist David Angel has died suddenly of a presumed heart attack at the age of 62. The British musician was conducting a Maggini Quartet course in Oxford at the time of his death. Angel was a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Yehudi Menuhin, Frederick Grinke, Jacqueline Salomons and Nadia Boulanger, and of London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he continued his studies with Grinke alongside chamber music coaching from Sidney Griller. The violinist performed with the Maggini Quartet since its inception in 1988. He was co-leader of the second violin section of the London Mozart Players, and frequently led the second violin sections of ensembles including the London Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of St. John’s. He also performed in a long-standing duo with pianist David Elwin. In 1993 he was appointed professor of quartet playing at Birmingham Conservatoire, and was also an honorary fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University and Brunel University. ‘He died doing what he loved and excelled at – playing, sharing and teaching his total passion for music,’ wrote Angel’s fellow quartet members Julian Leaper, Martin Outram and Michal Kaznowski. ‘A human and musical giant for all who knew him and were fortunate enough to work with him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his many colleagues.’

VIDEO: Mendelssohn Quartet in E minor, Op. 44 No.2 - Andante 

Maria Luisa Ozaita Marqués (Barakaldo, Spain, 20 May 1939 – Madrid, Spain, April 2017) was a Spanish pianist, harpsichordist, musicologist, conductor and composer.

Maria Luisa Ozaita Marquis was born in Barakaldo, Vizcaya, Spain. She studied with Fernando Remacha, and continued her studies in Copenhagen with Leif Thybo and K.J. Isaksen through a MFA exchange scholarship. She also studied harpsichord in France with Kenneth Gilbert and at Darmstadt, Germany. She has performed internationally in Europe, North America and Eastern Europe, and her compositions have also been performed internationally. She lectured on music history, and has published professional articles in magazines including Confutatis and OpusMusica and in the book Women in Music by Patricia Adkins Chiti. Ozaita also collaborated on the Spanish edition of Women in Music. A member of the La Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País and was the founding president of the Spanish Association of Women in Music. WIKIPEDIA

Former Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Thomas Brandis has died

Thomas Brandis, who served as a long-time first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, has died at the age of 81. Born in Hamburg in 1935, Brandis trained as a violinist in Hamburg and later in London with Max Rostal. After winning the first of the International ARD Competition he was concertmaster in Hamburg, moving later to Berlin to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. He became concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic at age 26, and served in the position until 1983. In 1976 he founded the Brandis-Quartet, which has performed virtually in all major festivals in Europe, Japan and the Americas. Thomas Brandis has recorded for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Orfeo and Harmonia Mundi. Thomas Brandis was a professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts until 2002, and was a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Musikhochschule in Lübeck. He died on 30 March 2017 at the age of 81. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Beethoven Missa Solemnis Sanctus Benedictus Antal Dorati Thomas Brandis Violin 

Rainer Kussmaul died 27 March 2017...German Grammy Award-winning violinist and conductor.

Born 3 June 1946 in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. 
 The German violinist and conductor, Rainer Kussmaul, a son of a musical family. He received his first violin lessons from his father and then studied with Riccardo Odnoposoff. He was a prize-holder at numerous international violin competitions. Rainer Kussmaul known worldwide as a soloist and as a member of the Stuttgart Piano Trio, formed in 1968. In 1995 he founded the Berliner Barock Solisten, together with R. Orlovsky. His violin was made by Antonio Stradivari in 1724. Between his concert tours with renowned orchestras and conductors, he recorded for radio, television and CD. Rainer Kussmaul was a successful teacher, giving master classes in many countries, and has been the director of the violin class at the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden since 1987 and the chairman of the L. Spohr competition Freiburg. He has been a professor at the Freiburg Music Conservatory since 1977, with the exception of the period from 1993 to 1998 when he was given leave of absence to enable him to take up the position of 1st Concert Master of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. (Bach-Cantatas Bio).

VIDEO: Vivaldi :Winter (From The four Seasons ) Violin：Rainer Kussmaul Berlin Baroque Soloists 

Roberta Knie, leading Wagnerian soprano and Philadelphia voice coach has died.

Roberta Knie (13 March 1938 – 16 March 2017) was an American dramatic soprano who had a prominent opera career in the United States and Europe that spanned from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. Possessing a strong and clear timbre, Knie became particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner.
WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Act I. (excerpt) Lyric Opera of Chicago Franz-Paul Decker, conductor