Jeff Nuttall, the charismatic musician who boldly performed for more than 30 years as the first violinist of the acclaimed St. Lawrence String Quartet and was widely acclaimed as the leader of the Spoleto Festival USA chamber music series, died Wednesday. Palo Alto, Calif., 56.
According to the quartet’s management company, David Lowe Artists, the cause was pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Nuttall founded St. Lawrence in Toronto in 1989 with violinist Barry Shiffman, violinist Leslie Robertson, and cellist Marina Huber. Training with the legendary Tokyo Quartet and Emerson Quartet, and winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition in Canada in 1992, they quickly came to prominence and attention, and Mr. He came first among his peers.
After its 1992 debut at New York’s 92nd Street Y, critic Alex Ross said that “the quartet’s stage manners were hip and casual” but with “unmistakable seriousness”. writing in the Times. Reflecting on Berg’s performance, Ross said: From now on, this quartet should show its presence. ”
St. Lawrence did. Its repertoire was individual and even quirky, with as strong a focus on new music as Osvaldo Golijov as on older scores. With the same intensity of works by Shostakovich, Schumann and Tchaikovsky, which he released on the EMI label, contemporary composers Jonathan His Berger and John His Adams recorded works. (Mr. Adams wrote two quartets for St. Lawrence and the quartet and orchestra “Absolute Jest.”)
If the quartet’s obvious commitment has marked, even with violinists Scott St. John and Owen Dalby and cellist Christopher Costanza replacing the departing members, it’s that Brio is the first in many years. because it seemed to emanate physically from the violinist of Mr. Nuttall often played with such enthusiasm that he pulled himself out of his seat.
Ross wrote in The New Yorker in 2001: Lead or scramble to restore rhythmic order. As a result, many passages sound maddeningly improvised, despite the strict discipline of the quartet’s rehearsal process. ”
Mr. Nuttall’s inspiring ability to engage stemmed from his deep desire to communicate, even at the expense of other bland technical virtues, and he was well aware of the risks of failure. In fact, he hailed them as essential to good performance.
Nuttall, a vinyl collector who kept more than 10,000 LPs in his living room inspired by Miles Davis as much as the Bush Quartet, told American Artscape in 2014: . You really want to unite and blend in together. I remember being inspired by Bob Dylan’s record “Nashville Skyline”. He has a duet with Johnny Cash. It’s such a great record and they’re not together at all. They are doing something completely unique, yet completely unified and at the same time very powerful. ”
“And it was a great lesson in ensemble playing,” he continued. Even if there is, it can be stronger.”
Jeffrey Winston Nuttall was born on November 22, 1965 in College Station, Texas, to John and Suzanne (Chanz) Nuttall. his mother was a nurse. His father was a professor of physics, and Jeff transferred from Texas A&M University to the University of Ontario in Canada when he was eight years old.
He started playing the violin soon after his family moved to London, Ontario, playing in his first quartet when he was 10 or 11 years old. University of Toronto, where he graduated.
With St. Lawrence, Mr. Nuttall later resided at the Juilliard School, Yale University, and the Hart School of Music. He and his colleagues joined the faculty at Stanford University in 1998 to lead the chamber music program and create the music for Franz Joseph His Haydn. of their concert program.
Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed wrote of Haydn’s 2018 recital of six works: 20 works that St. Lawrence also recorded with gritty drama rather than subdued elegance. “The string quartet as theater is more exhilarating than this.”
Haydn’s music calls for “active participation in the game and active listening,” according to a 2017 Google presentation.
He had the rare talent to inspire just that during concerts with lively talks about why music is worth being fully involved with. Along with his eclectic taste in repertoire, he was the ideal replacement for Charles Wadsworth in his early summer Spoleto Chamber in Charleston, South Carolina in 2009 as director and host of his series. I became a front man.
St. Lawrence has played for Spoleto regularly since 1995, making South Carolina a home away from home for Nuttall in the Bay Area.
He married another violinist, Livia Sohn, in his Charleston garden in 2000.
Joanna Keller wrote of Spoleto’s appointment in The New York Times in 2013: Nuttall turned out to be the John Stewart of chamber music,” she continued.
Mr. Nuttall didn’t particularly care about the comparison.
“Whether you’re a 7-year-old and have never seen a violin up close, or a PhD in music, leave feeling hummed, uplifted, ringered and feeling emotional. I want you to,” he explained.Charleston Magazine in 2019.
“Music connects us all. There are no secret codes you must understand to be moved.”