Joseph Silverstein, the longtime concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1962-84), former music director of the Utah Symphony (1983-98) and
artistic and organizational mentor to numerous US orchestras and their musicians, has died at 83.Silverstein was active in both orchestral and chamber music. He organized the Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 1964, was named the Boston Symphony’s assistant conductor in 1971. He also was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
He appeared as a soloist and guest conductor with numerous orchestras, including a performing-conducting residency with the Richmond Symphony in 2002.
In addition to leading the Utah Symphony, he was music director of the Chautauqua Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and served as artistic advisor or interim music director of nearly a dozen other orchestras.
Silverstein taught at Yale and Boston universities, New England Conservatory, Tanglewood Music Center and his alma mater, Curtis Institute of Music, where he had studied with Efram Zimbalist.
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UPDATE: Frank Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, recalls working with and learning from Joseph Silverstein:
http://www.insidethearts.com/nondivisi/my-endless-summer/
(via http://www.slippedisc.com)
at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway.
David Zinman
Op. 96 (“American”)
beginners playlist that he compiled for The Guardian in advance of the Sound Unbound festival staged over the weekend at London’s Barbican.
Electroacoustic Music Festival stages four programs, featuring eighth blackbird, Ensemble Ü from Estonia, bassoonist Dana Jesson and clarinetist Andrea Cheeseman, Nov. 6-7 at the Modlin Arts Center. . . . The Shanghai Quartet, joined by marimba player June Moon Kyung Hahn, plays the Marimba Qunitet of Korean-born composer Jeajoon Ryu and string quartets by Mendelssohn and Grieg, Nov. 8 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . The Richmond Symphony, Steven Smith conducting, marks the sesquicentennial 
of Sibelius’ birth with his Second Symphony in a Casual Fridays program on Nov. 13 and a Masterworks program, also featuring Sibelius’ “The Swan of Tuonela” and Orion Weiss playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, on Nov. 14, both at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Richmond Philharmonic, Peter Wilson conducting, opens its 2015-16 season with a program of Sibelius, Nielsen and Dukas, Nov. 15 in the Hershey Arts Center of Collegiate School. . . . Virginia Opera brings its production of Puccini’s “La Bohème” to Richmond CenterStage on Nov. 20 and 22 (following Norfolk and Fairfax performances earlier in the month).
Opera stages the work for six performances from Nov. 14 to 22, at the Kennedy Center. . . . Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan, joined by soprano Joanne Lunn, gives two performances in the region, a Tuesday Evening Concerts program on Nov. 3 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and a Nov. 4 concert at the Library of Congress in Washington. . . . Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter performs with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Third Symphony, Nov. 5-7 at the Kennedy Center, and gives a recital of English Renaissance songs and French and Italian baroque arias, Nov. 17 at the Library of Congress. . . . The Romeros, the famed classical guitar family, join Philippe 
Entremont and the Munich Symphony Orchestra in concerts on Nov. 7 at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax and Nov. 12 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. . . . Mason Bates, the Richmond-bred composer, kicks off his multi-year residency at the Kennedy Center with “Lounge Regime: 100 Years of Ambient Music” on Nov. 9. . . . Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes plays Sibelius, Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven, Nov. 14 at the Kennedy Center (waiting list for tickets). . . . Violinist Hilary Hahn joins Hannu Lintu and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, on a program also featuring the “Four Legends” of Sibelius, Nov. 19 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . The University of Virginia 
Chamber Singers and the baroque ensemble Three Notch’d Road present a concert version of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” Nov. 20 at UVa’s Old Cabell Hall. . . . The male vocal ensemble Chanticleer brings its popular Christmas program to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax on Nov. 28 and the Hylton Arts Center at GMU’s Manassas campus on Nov. 29. . . . Opera Lafayette, the ensemble specializing in baroque rarities, stages Vivaldi’s “Catone in Utica,” Nov. 28-29 at the Kennedy Center.