In Memoriam

SFCV remembers major figures in classical music from the Bay Area and beyond.


Obituary
November 29, 2011

Farewell to Montserrat Figueras, a great singer whom Bay Area audiences will long remember.

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Obituary
February 5, 2011

An international community is mourning the loss of guitarist and educator Frank Longay, credited for spearheading the adaptation of the Suzuki method of music education for the classical guitar.

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Obituary
December 7, 2010

Jane Hohfeld Galante, a leading chamber musician and prominent San Franciscan, died at her home in San Francisco Wednesday morning. 

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Obituary
October 12, 2010

La Stupenda is no more. The brilliant coloratura soprano Joan Sutherland, who died a thousand deaths onstage after emitting flawless high E-flats, died on Oct. 10 at her Swiss home near Montreux.

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Obituary
June 15, 2010

San Francisco Classical Voice lost one of its finest writers and an even dearer friend when Heuwell Tircuit died last Monday. His body was discovered in his apartment by his longtime friend Hal Cruthirds on Wednesday. He was 78 years old.

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1931-2010" »
Obituary
April 27, 2010

Alan Rich, America’s most outspoken classical music critic, died in his sleep Friday in his home in West Los Angeles at the age of 85. For his entire career, he was as full-out in his enthusiasms and advocacies as he was unsparing and sharp in his assessments, always making a deep impression.

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1924-2010" »
Obituary
March 24, 2010

Blanche Thebom, one of the great operatic mezzos of the postwar era, died at her home in San Francisco on March 23. Increasingly isolated due to dementia, Miss Thebom, as she was known to most, or “Miss T,” as she was called by many of her students, died a week after contracting pneumonia.

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(1915-2010)" »
Obituary
December 29, 2009

Mariedi Anders, a leading American concert manager and the first in San Francisco, died Dec. 26 in the California Pacific Hospital after a short illness. She was 94. She was a major agent on the West Coast, managing her Mariedi Anders Artists Management, Inc., for 50 years, right up to her death. She was noted throughout the industry for her devotion to her artists, her energy, and her determination in the introduction of new artists.

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1915-2009" »
Obituary
October 20, 2009

Berkeley-raised conductor J. Karla Lemon, who conducted a host of local and national new music ensembles and orchestras between teaching gigs at Stanford University and other institutions, died peacefully at her Oakland home on October 15. The cause of death was a massive and catastrophic stroke endured during open-heart surgery for correction of a congenital heart condition.

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Obituary
July 28, 2009

Ten years ago, when Michael Steinberg retired as the San Francisco Symphony's program annotator and music advisor, he had a farewell essay in the program, entitled "Why We Are Here." It is also part of the book For the Love of Music Steinberg cowrote with Larry Rothe, his long-time colleague at SFS.

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