Paul Tobias
Cellist Paul Tobias, 68, died last month, after sustaining injuries in a fall. A nationally known soloist and educator, Tobias has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony and served on the faculty of the S.F. Conservatory of Music and UC Berkeley.
He also taught at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes College. Tobias was founding artistic director of New Heritage Music, an organization launched in 1998 to foster new American compositions. He said of the project:
We commission new pieces to commemorate people, events, and themes, using history. There has never been a systematic approach that had an educational, historical, social, and musical component going together in quite this way. Using the link to history New Heritage provides a theme for marketers at the orchestras who are so paralysed with fear over new music. This gives them something that can attract audiences.
Tobias played premieres of concerti by Krzysztof Penderecki, Chen Yi, David Ott, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Peter Schickele. Robert Commanday writes:
Paul Tobias was born in San Francisco and at age 8 was taken on by Bonnie Hampton as a cello student, worked with her, then with Margaret Rowell, until he went to Juilliard. He stayed in the East mostly from that time. He played with the Oakland Symphony probably in the early 60's, was the soloist in the Hindemith Cello Concerto, which also had its premiere here with Hampton.
Lee Hyla
Composer Kurt Rohde, of the UC Davis faculty, writes:
I wanted to bring to your attention the untimely passing of Lee Hyla, one of the great underrepresented, most deserving of American composers. He had a fabulous creative mind — he was so concise, bracing, honest, and generous. His music reflected these qualities, and so much more: His imagination was so rich, and unencumbered by the distractions of style or image, he marched to his drummer and wrote breathtakingly beautiful, gripping, present music.
Hyla died in Chicago on June 6, at age 61. Born in Niagara Falls, Hyla's awards included the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Rome Prize. He taught at New England Conservatory from 1992 to 2007, serving as co-chair of the composition department for most of that time.
Hyla was the first composer in residence at the biannual UC Davis Music Festival, writes Rohde, "He was well respected and much admired by so many composers, including those in various faculties. Left Coast Chamber Ensemble has played his music, as I am sure have other local groups."
David Nadien
David Nadien, a violinist whose appointment as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic raised eyebrows because of his thriving career as a studio musician, died on May 28 in Manhattan. He was 88:
When Leonard Bernstein, the Philharmonic’s music director, appointed Mr. Nadien concertmaster in 1966 — replacing John Corigliano Sr., the father of the composer, who was retiring — it was a highly unusual choice. Concertmasters are typically poached from other orchestras or promoted from within the ranks, but Mr. Nadien, then 40, was a freelance commercial musician. Although Bernstein described him as "an extraordinary violinist," he had almost no experience playing with a major symphony orchestra.After winning the prestigious Leventritt Award (judged by a panel that included Arturo Toscanini) at 20, Mr. Nadien made a good living recording television jingles, film soundtracks, and other projects. Interviewed for a 1966 New York Times article, he said he was apprehensive about discussing his work as a studio musician.
“I don’t look down on commercial music,” he said, “but I know some people do, and I guess I care what they think.”