“During rehearsal Wednesday morning, many in the St. Louis Symphony orchestra played the first measures of Tchaikovsky through tears,” writes Gloria Ross on Thursday (10/17) in the St. Louis Beacon (Missouri). “The tears had begun earlier during a long moment of silence for a young orchestra member, Andrew Thompson, who died suddenly the day before…. Thompson had realized his dream of joining his hometown orchestra just over a year ago…. Mr. Thompson … collapsed while visiting friends Tuesday…. The medical examiner believes Mr. Thompson suffered from an inherited heart condition that left 95 percent of a heart artery blocked,” but the cause of death has not yet been verified. “As a middle-schooler, Mr. Thompson played in orchestras at the old St. Louis Conservatory and Schools for the Arts. In high school, he was accepted into the Symphony’s Youth Orchestra…. He received a performance degree from DePaul University in Chicago … [and] earned a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.… ‘It’s hard to (overstate) the sense of shock and loss,’ said [St. Louis Symphony Music Director David] Robertson… ‘Even the short time he was in the orchestra he gave us a complete sense of what a musician should be; that will be his abiding legacy.’ ”
Posted October 17, 2013
