Jeffrey Tate’s ashes are scattered in a Venice canal
mainThe final rites for the late conductor Sir Jeffrey Tate were performed in Venice on Saturday night.
After an Enigma Variations concert at La Fenice that Jeffrey had been scheduled to conduct, some 50 friends accompanied his widower Klaus Kuhlemann to the Maria Callas Bridge where, after a few words by Hamburg Symphony director Daniel Kühnel, his ashes were consigned to eternity.
Jeffrey died on June 2 last year at the age of 74.
I sang for this great Man three times in Peter Grimes (Hobson) La Scala,Paris,Napoli.
It was a honour and pleasure.
I knew Jeffrey Tate as a fellow schoolboy in the 1950s to 60s. We were both musicians in those days, though he was clearly very gifted and I was very average. We were at Farnham Grammar School together under the inspiring music teacher Alan Fluck.
A plaque was recently unveiled in Farnham to celebrate the period that Jeffrey lived in Farnham. Go to: http://www.farnhamians.org/ofa/TatePlaque.htm