As the year draws to a close, we’d like to remember the outstanding artists who passed away in 2023
Violist David Johnson Dalton, a student and collaborator of William Primrose, passed away aged 88.
Belgian composer Wim Henderickx, who was considered one of Belgium’s leading composers, passed away aged 60.
English composer Andrew Downes, the Head of Composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, passed away aged 72.
The concertmaster of Colorado’s Boulder Philharmonic, violinist Charles Tyler Wetherbee passed away aged 56.
Violinist Michaela Paetsch, the first American woman to record all 24 Paganini caprices, passed away aged 61.
Georgian pianist Manana Doijashvili, who founded the Tbilisi International Piano Competition, passed away aged 75.
Nigel Brown OBE, founder of the Stradivari Trust, passed away aged 77.
Filmmaker Christopher Nupen, whose footage presented intimate portraits of the lives of classical musicians, passed away aged 88.
German violinist Martin Manz, who played in the Munich Philharmonic for over three decades, passed away aged 64.
Highly-respected South Korean violinist and teacher Nam Yun Kim passed away aged 74.
Czech violinist Ladislav Jasek, who was the leader of Adelaide’s Elder String Quartet and of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, passed away.
Longstanding BBC Philharmonic violinist Clare Dixon, who served the orchestra for 33 years, passed away.
Scottish cellist Alexander Cameron, who was principal cello of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for over 15 years, passed away aged 100.
Juno Award-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock passed away aged 53.
Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away aged 71.
Russian violinist and conductor Lev Markiz passed away aged 92.
Croatian cellist and pedagogue Valter Dešpalj passed away aged 76.
Choral conductor Royce Saltzman, who was a professor of choral music at the University of Oregon, passed away aged 94.
Ukrainian conductor Konstiantyn Starovytskyi bravely died while defending Ukraine on the frontlines of the Russian invasion, aged 40.
Oboist and journalist Blair Tindall, the author of the memoir Mozart in the Jungle, passed away aged 63.
American double bassist Dan Swaim passed away aged 89.
Latvian-American conductor David Fetler, the founder of the Greece Symphony Orchestra and Rochester Chamber Orchestra, passed away aged 96.
The legendary Israeli-American pianist Menahem Pressler, who was a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, passed away aged 99.
Cellist Rudolf Weinsheimer, a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker for 40 years, passed away aged 91.
Violinist Volker Worliztsch, the first concertmaster of the NDR Radio Philharmonic in Hanover, passed away aged 78.
Violinist Ronald Hoogeveen, the longtime concertmaster of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, passed away aged 74.
Belarusian cellist Aleksandr Khramouchin, principal cellist of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, passed away aged 43.
Austrian pianist Ingrid Haebler, a revered interpreter of Mozart’s music, passed away aged 93.
Violinist Justine Watts, the longest-serving concertmaster of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, passed away.
Venezuelan composer Paul Desenne passed away aged 63.
German violinist Edith Peinemann passed away aged 85.
German conductor Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, chief conductor of the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, passed away at age 85.
The renowned Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho passed away aged 70.
San Francisco-based luthier Francis Kuttner passed away.
Pianist Niel Immelman, who held a professorship at London’s Royal College of Music, passed away aged 78.
Conductor Gerhardt Zimmermann, who held posts at the Canton Symphony Orchestra and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, passed away aged 77.
Turkish violinist Suna Kan passed away aged 86.
Greek composer Yannis Markopoulos passed away aged 82.
Colombian violinist Carlos Villa, who conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, passed away aged 84.
American cellist and pedagogue Rick Mooney passed away.
Violinist and pedagogue Philippe Borer, who was known for his research on Paganini and violin intonation, passed away aged 68.
American double bassist David Neubert, who spent over three decades playing in the Austin Symphony, passed away aged 69.
Composer Clarence Barlow, who was a pioneer in the field of electroacoustic and computer music, passed away aged 77.
Violinist Victor Pikayzen, who taught at the Moscow Conservatory, passed away aged 90.
Hong Kong physicist and luthier Anton Sie passed away aged 87.
English violinist Jackie Hartley, principal second violinist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the first female principal of a London orchestra, passed away aged 63.
Tenor Graham Clark passed away aged 81.
Pianist and professor André Watts, who taught at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, passed away aged 77.
UC Berkeley faculty member and renowned cello pedagogue Irene Sharp passed away.
Composer and conductor Yuzo Toyama, who led the NHK Symphony Orchestra, passed away aged 92.
Pianist Valentin Gheorghiu, one of the leading Romanian musicians of the twentieth century, passed away aged 95.
Pianist, composer, director, and producer Daniel Jones passed away aged 41.
French pianist and bandleader Denis Badault, who taught at the Toulouse Conservatory, passed away aged 65.
Violinist Ji Soo Choi, a graduate of The Juilliard School, passed away aged 28.
Czech composer and pianist Hanuš Bartoň, who was the head of the composition department at Prague’s Academy of the Performing Arts, passed away aged 63.
American composer Carl Davis, who wrote scores for Pride and Prejudice (1995) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), passed away aged 86.
Nancy van de Vate, composer and founder of the League of Women Composers, passed away aged 92.
Mariana Sîrbu, who was the first violinist of the Quartetto Stradivari and leader of Italy’s I Musici ensemble, passed away.
Violinist Larry Grika, who served in the Philadelphia Orchestra for 41 years, passed away aged 90.
Esteemed solo and chamber pianist Folke Nauta passed away aged 50.
Baroque violinist Florence Malgoire, who founded period-instrument ensembles such as Les Nièces de Rameau and Les Dominos, passed away aged 63.
Longstanding Baltimore Symphony violist Delmar Stewart passed away aged 73.
Romanian violinist and faculty member at the University of Illinois Sherban Lupu passed away aged 71.
Colburn School provost Dr. Adrian Daly passed away.
American composer David Tcimpidis passed away aged 85.
Italian soprano Renata Scotto, who was closely associated with the Metropolitan Opera, passed away aged 89.
Swedish conductor and period-instrument specialist Arnold Östman passed away aged 83.
Japanese conductor Taijiro Iimori passed away aged 82.
Violist, writer, and broadcaster Miles Hoffman, who founded the American Chamber Players, passed away.
American composer Gloria Coates passed away aged 89.
Master luthier Steve Reiley, who crafted bows for Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma, passed away aged 74.
Icelandic cellist Mirjam Ingolfsson passed away aged 49.
Bassist, composer, and RPO Chair Gareth Wood passed away aged 73.
Austrian-American composer Walter Arlen, who was also a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, passed away aged 103.
Pianist Anatol Ugorski, who specialized in avant-garde music behind the Iron Curtain, passed away aged 80.
Jazz bassist Richard Davis, who appeared with some of the biggest names of the twentieth century, passed away aged 93.
Violinist and Stringfever founder Giles Davis passed away aged 51.
Cellist Joy Hall, who appeared on a number of tracks by the Beatles (including “Strawberry Fields Forever”), passed away aged 102.
Spanish-Italian violinist Felix Ayo, a founder member of I Musici and the Quartetto Beethoven di Roma, passed away aged 90.
Bassist Joseph Guastafeste, who served 49 years as the principal double bass for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, passed away aged 93.
Baritone Alejandro Meerapfel passed away aged 54.
American tenor and conductor Herbert Handt passed away aged 97.
American pianist Russell Sherman, who taught at the New England Conservatory, passed away aged 93.
Belgian pianist and composer François Glorieux passed away aged 91.
Alban Berg Quartett founding violist Hatto Beyerle passed away aged 90.
Japanese composer Akira Nishimura passed away aged 69.
Robert K. Dodson, the former Provost at the New England Conservatory, passed away aged 81.
Hungarian composer István Láng, whose style combined serialism and aleatoricism with the Hungarian folk flavor of Béla Bartók, passed away aged 90.
Czech conductor Zdeněk Mácal, who led more than 170 orchestras, passed away aged 87.
Conductor Yuri Temirkanov passed away aged 84.
John Gerlach, the Tri-I Noon Recitals Director at Rockefeller University, passed away.
Former Borodin Quartet violinist Andrei Abramenkov passed away aged 88.
Jazz bassist John Bany passed away aged 81.
Cellist Lutz Rath, who was Artistic Director of the Washington Square Music Festival, passed away aged 78.
Flutist François Laurent, who was the principal flute of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse for over 40 years, passed away aged 63.
Czech violist Jiri Heger, who was principal violist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for over 20 years, passed away aged 77.
Violist Shanda Lowery-Sachs, who had been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2001, passed away.
American composer David Del Tredici passed away aged 86.
Instrument collector Shi Wen-Long, who founded the world’s largest private instrument collection, passed away aged 95.
French pianist Colette Maze, the last surviving proponent of the Cortot school, passed away aged 109.
Violinist Conrad von der Goltz passed away, aged 95.
Latvian conductor Jānis Zirnis, who was Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Opera, passed away aged 79.
Conductor Robert Hart Baker passed away aged 69.
Austrian cellist Franz Bartolomey, who was the principal cello of the Vienna Philharmonic, passed away aged 77.
American mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller, a featured artist at the Metropolitan Opera, passed away aged 98.
Mezzo-soprano Marlena Kleinman Malas, who taught at the Curtis Institute of Music for over 30 years, passed away aged 87.
Hungarian violinist János Rolla, who led and conducted the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra for most of his life, passed away aged 79.
Richard Gaddes, founder of the Opera Theatre of St Louis, passed away aged 81.
Tenor Eduardo Villa, who appeared frequently at the Metropolitan Opera, passed away aged 70.
