Music mourns pal Joey

National US media have not got around to reporting the death yesterday, after a heart attack, of the Boston concertmaster and Utah music director Joseph Silverstein, but tributes are flooding social media for a musician who was known to thousands of friends as, simply, Joey.

Utah’s former concertmaster Ralph Matson spoke for many when he said: ‘He was someone who made the making of music on the violin a guilty pleasure. For him to find an hour with a violin and nothing to do but practice was the equivalent of finding half a beautiful cake in the kitchen and you just couldn’t treat yourself to it. It was that kind of delight in music-making. It was quite contagious.’

May he find eternal rest.