Sambuco, John (21st March 1928-24 October 2001)

Violinist and teacher born John Gaetano Sambucco in Hartford, Cennecticut, who picked up the violin at the age of four and went on to study at the Hartford Conservatory of Music, Hartt School of Music, and Julliard. By the time he was nineteen years old, he was already a member of the Denver Symphony.

The Korean War dictated that he serve his country, and fortunately he was able to do this at West Point as the concertmaster of the U.S. Military Academy String Orchestra.

Upon completion of his military service, he became a member of the Minneapolis Symphony, where he would stay for twenty-four years, under the batons of Antal Dorati and Stanislav Skowacewski.

He made the most of his stay in Minnesota, occupying the first violin chair with the Twin Cities String Quartet, serving on the University of Minnesota faculty, and becoming the St. Paul Orchestra concertmaster, a position he has also held with the Desert Symphony, Irvine Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, and Pacific Symphony.

John also worked with the New York Philharmonic, touring Russia and Scandinavia in 1976, and substituting in the States as needed. He appeared on a pair of albums in the late ‘70s, Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack to Nunzio and Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy.

On 20^th November 1994, he helped offer up a little night music in the afternoon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, Connecticut, as one of the violinists in the Filarmonia Quartet, performing Beethoven and Dvorak quartets and Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”.

He passed away in Virginia on 24^th October 2001 when he was 73 year old.

Here is music from the Nunzio soundtrack which John played on…

Sources:

Sambuco, John (21st March 1928-24 October 2001)

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