In Thursday’s (10/27) Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler writes, “The composer and conductor James Yannatos, who as leader of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra for more than four decades worked with thousands of young musicians, died at his home in Cambridge Oct. 19. The cause was complications of cancer, said his daughter, Kalya of Marlboro, Vt. He was 82. ‘He was an all-around musician and an excellent musician,’ said Lewis Lockwood, a professor of music at Harvard who knew Dr. Yannatos since they were teenagers. … His studies took him to Yale for his bachelor’s and master’s in music and to the University of Iowa for a doctorate and brought him into contact with noted 20th century composers including Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, and Luigi Dallapiccola, as well as Nadia Boulanger, who had taught Aaron Copland, among many others. … Dr. Yannatos’s violin playing and conducting also caught the ear of Leonard Bernstein, who helped steer him toward a conducting post at Harvard. In 1964, Dr. Yannatos took up the leadership of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, one of the oldest continually performing orchestras in the country. He stayed for 45 years.”
Posted October 27, 2011
