‘Jane Little stood next to me last Sunday when she played her last note’

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will play tonight at a memorial service for Jane Little, who died last Sunday in mid-concert after a record 71 years in the orchestra.

Her fellow-bassist Michael Kurth pays tribute here:

Jane Little was standing next to me last Sunday when she played her last note. She was doing what she loved, surrounded by people she loved, in a place that was like home to her. Kurth and Jane Little (in the back row) in concert two days before her death. (Photo by Jeff Roffman)

Much has been said of the    “appropriateness” of the circumstances of Jane’s passing; it certainly seems poetic, dulce et decorum est and all that. Perhaps she wanted it that way, perhaps many of us would like to pass our years without a moment wasted, wringing every drop of passion and purpose out of life, sharing ourselves until the last heartbeat. But I would eagerly trade that Hollywood ending for just a few more heartbeats, a moment, one last opportunity to tell Jane how beloved she is and how much she means to our orchestra family, and how grateful we all are for her life and her gifts.

Read on here.