- Alan Hovhaness
- Anthony Milner
- Vienna Conservatory
- Maria Björnson
- Barbara Zechmeister
- Pavel Nebolsin
- Denis Bédard
- Skalkottas: Ancient Greek March
January 2021 Obituaries
Our summary of those the
classical music world has lost this month
Here are brief details of some of the people lost to the classical music world during January 2021. May they rest in peace.
Following a short illness, British opera conductor Andrew Greenwood died from prostate cancer on 16 January 2021, aged sixty-six.
Australian opera director Elijah Moshinsky died on 14 January, aged seventy-five.
Serbian mezzo, contralto and teacher Biserka Cvejić died in Belgrade on 7 January, aged ninety-seven. Born Biserka Katušić at Jesenice near Split in modern-day Croatia on 5 November 1923, she grew up in Belgium but returned to Yugoslavia after World War II. She studied with Josip Rijavec at the Academy of Music in Belgrade and, after depping there as a student in 1950, sang at Belgrade Opera from 1954 until 1959, during which time she made recordings with Decca. After first appearing at Vienna State Opera in 1959, she sang there from 1960 until 1979. She performed regularly at Croatian National Opera in Zagreb, and also appeared at La Scala, Verona Arena, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro Colón, New York Metropolitan Opera and at Covent Garden. She retired from the opera stage in 1990 and taught singing at the University of Arts in Belgrade and at the Musical Academy in Novi Sad.
Biserka Cvejić (1923-2021)
English violinist and conductor John Georgiadis died on 5 January, aged eighty-one.
Tasso Adamopoulos, a French viola player and teacher of Greek origin, died from COVID-19 on 3 January, aged seventy-six. Born in Paris in June 1944, he studied in Israel and, aged nineteen, became a soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Later he worked with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Ensemble orchestral de Paris, the Orchestre national de France and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. He was also a member of the Sartory Trio with Roland Daugareil and Étienne Péclard. He also taught viola at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon and at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux. His students included Alain Celo, Chara Sira, Françoise Renard, Mathieu Herzog and Pierre Vallet. He played a 1755 Landolfi viola. His sister was the violinist Eve Adamopoulos.
Tasso Adamopoulos (1944-2021)
Macedonian violinist, singer, arranger and teacher Zoran Džorlev died from COVID-19 in Skopje on 1 January, aged fifty-three. He was born at Strumica on 10 January 1967. His father had been a well-known conductor and composer of folk music. Initially, as a child, Zoran played trumpet, accordion and guitar, but then was put on piano at school before switching to the violin when he was ten years old. He became known for his arrangements and performances of Macedonian folk music and for his arrangements of film music and jazz. From 2011 until 2017 he was director of Tanec, a folk dance and song ensemble. He was also the director of the Skopje high school DMBUC Ilija Nikolovski Luj.
Posted 6 January 2021 and last updated 10 January 2021 by Keith Bramich
