The death has been announced, aged 94, of the venerable Burton Fine, principal viola for 29 years of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He started out as a research chemist with the space agency NASA.
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Mary Lou Speaker, Joseph Silverstein, and now Burton Fine; the venerable, unmatchable, and legendary old guard of the BSO strings are gradually leaving us. They were truly unforgettable. Jules Eskin and Ed Barker remain and we wish them good health and many more years. RIP, the great Burton Fine.
Sad to say I don’t think Jules Eskin is with us anymore…
Jules Eskin passed away in 2016.
Jules Eskin also passed away several years ago.
Eskin died in 2016, RIP.
Sadly, Jules has been gone for a number of years. Burton was the last member of the Chamber Players string quartet.
Sadly, Jules Eskin also passed away a while back. What a string section they were.
Eskin left years ago.
Jules Eskin died some years ago.
We are ephemera–
Time sweeps us all away
It is an almost unbelievable story how he went from experienced NASA scientist to member of the BSO (second violin section) — for all practical purposes that “destination” orchestra was his first actual music job, and he took the audition on a lark with, for all practical purposes, one day to prepare. He’d been well trained, of course, including studies with Ivan Galamian. Many musicians have interesting back-stories, but Burton Fine’s ranks right up there.
Absolutely incredible! I was fortunate to work with a young musician who started out as a research chemist; joined the USAF to be a jazz saxophonist; got commissioned and was a literal rocket scientist at Hanscom AFB; then got a JD and is now a patent attorney with season tix to GB Packers.
There really are some amazing stories of human achievement out there!
It is not unusual for extremely intelligent people to have a gift for classical music.
Boston must have been both insightful and adventurous in its hiring at one time; they hired not only the violinist/violist/chemist Burton Fine, but also their splendid principal French horn Charles Kavalovksi (a nuclear physicist), even as he continued his research at MIT. Remarkably, Kavalovski was hired even though he couldn’t sight read music, according to his bio (https://windsongpress.com/brass%20players/horn/Kavalovski.pdf); he was a very quick study and pledged never to sight-read for the BSO, but always be prepared in advance.
RIP Mr. Fine, and thank you for taking your artistry to the BSO.
One story about Chuck, as he was backstage preparing to rehearse the Beethoven 5th, a colleague remarked, Hey Chuck, enjoy, it’s a good piece.
I read, according to another great orchestra musician Frank Crisafulli of the CSO, he was never required to sight read his parts because they were given to him to study pre-season. I wonder if this is common for all major orchestra musicians?
Listening to the interview I don’t think it is necessary to play the Mozart Concertante with the viola tuned a semitone higher. The idea was to give the viola more brilliance but nowadays with modern strings it is superfluous.
With all due respect to the devoted artists mentioned above, some of us also remember an Older Guard, so to speak, of Richard Burgin, Joseph de Pasquale, and Samuel Mayes.
The legendary Charles Kavalovski, who is a PhD nuclear physicist, was the principal horn of the BSO for 25 years, and also served on both the music and physics faculties of Boston University.
Not sure why my former teacher, Vic Firth, is not in the group picture. He did record “Variations for 4 Drums and Viola” by Michael Colgrass with Mr. Fine.
All these wonderful musicians (and not known to me scientists) populated the BSO that I knew ca. 1967 and beyond.
As a student at Boston College (1967-1971) I was privileged to be an usher at Symphony Hall (paid $12 per concert, a princely sum for a college kid in those days). And I personally got to know those greats including all mentioned in this thread. Also got to know Leinsdorf, Munch and Steinberg. All RIP indeed!
They all occupy a place in my memory.
I should also add to my previous comment that I got to know Seigi and Bernstein, the later of whom used to invvite me to listen in to his recording sessions with the BSO!
I was a young flute student in the early ’70s at the New England Conservatory.
Often, while I roamed the hallways in search of a practice room, Mr. Fine would pass by, look up at me, and say: “Hi Susie!”
I always returned the greeting, but to this day I do not know who he thought I was. My name is not, nor ever was, Susie. 🙂
His 2nd wife of 47 yrs, a young harpist he met in the 70s, is Susan.
There was probably better job security with the BSO than with NASA.