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TRIBUTE
November 25, 2003
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By Robert Commanday
Last Tuesday, a much-loved violinist in the San Francisco musical scene, Silvio Dante Claudio, 86, passed away at his home in Berkeley. The silver-haired native San Franciscan had been a first violinist in the San Francisco Symphony for 37 years, under Pierre Monteux, Enrique Jorda, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa and Edo de Waart. His first wife, the late Mary Hughson Claudio, was assistant principal cello; his brother, the late Ferdinand (“Nando”), also a violinist; and for a shorter tenure his other brother, the cellist Cesare, also played in the Symphony. Silvio also played in the SF Opera and Ballet Orchestras, in innumerable chamber music performances, and, after his retirement from the SF Symphony, in other orchestras of the region.
The Claudio brothers, second-generation Italians, were brought up and trained in San Francisco. Silvio had an aristocratic bearing and wore a sly smile that gave a hint of the man's keen sense of humor. He is survived by his wife Candy Sanderson, also a professional symphony violinist, his daughters Francine Loyo and Elisa Riley, his brother Cesare, and grandchildren John, Shannon, Stephen, Dominick and Sonya.
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