Cellist Gayle Mae Smith has died aged 80

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US cellist Gayle Mae Smith died on 9 June at the age of 80. Born on 2 September in Glendale, California, she began to learn the cello at an early age and at 14 travelled to Puerto Rico for lessons with renowned cellist Pablo Casals. Smith went on to study at the Institute for Special Musical Studies at the University of Southern California with Gregor Piatigorsky, also receiving a bachelor’s degree in art history. She pursued postgraduate studies with Peter Grummer at the Royal Academy of Music in London as the recipient of a Fullbright grant, and with William Pleeth at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Following her solo debut performance at the Alice Tully Hall of the Lincoln Center in New York, she gave further performances abroad in Moscow, Vienna, and London. She was also a finalist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970.

As an educator, Smith taught across the US and internationally. In the US, in California she taught at the Glendale Community College and University of California, and in Utah at the Utah Valley College, the University of Utah, and the Brigham Young University. In the UK, she taught at the Inner London Saturday Music School and the Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

In her later years, Smith frequently performed at Catholic churches in Los Angeles with Grammy Award winner Victor Vanacore and his son Victor Vanacore III, until in 2020 she moved to an assisted living facility in Northern California due to the effects of Alzheimer’s, and later to Victorville in California. Smith continued to perform in the homes with her pianist cousin, to the delight of her fellow residents.

‘She was a wonderful cellist, an inspiring person, and a very beautiful woman,’ wrote US cellist Nathaniel Rosen. ‘I remember her playing a gamba sonata from memory with love and expertise. She was a joyful presence.’

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