The highly respected and versatile American worked with many musicians, from Louis Armstrong and Elliott Carter to Sinatra and Stravinsky
The distinguished American violinist Matthew Raimondi died on 19 October 2024, aged 96. He was founder – and for more than 30 years – first violinist of the Composers Quartet (with Anahid Ajemian, Bernard Zaslav and Seymour Barab), a leading group during the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s known especially for performing contemporary music, but equally at home in the traditional quartet repertoire. The ensemble made the premiere recordings of Elliott Carter’s first two string quartets, and worked closely with the composer on his third and fourth quartets.
Raimondi also had close associations with many other leading figures in 20th-century music including Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Luigi Dallapiccola, Morton Feldman and Igor Stravinsky. Previously to his work with the Composers Quartet, he had been second violin with the New Music Quartet (with Broadus Erle, Walter Trampler and Claus Adam), a group formed in the late 1940s that also was at the forefront of the performance of new music in New York.
With his wife Natalie, Raimondi founded the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine, in 1963, which is now in its 61st season.
Raimondi was also a leading light in the world of commercial music in New York; he worked alongside (and can be heard in countless recordings) with stars such as Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, James Brown, Benny Goodman, Wynton Marsalis and Frank Sinatra.
Born in 1928 in New York City, the son of Sicilian immigrants, Raimondi attended the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Ivan Galamian, and received his master’s degree at Columbia University, where he studied with the musicologist Paul Henry Lang.
Raimondi subsequently taught at Columbia, Juilliard, the New England Conservatory, Vassar College, Oberlin College and the Aspen Music Festival. He was also on the board of the National Endowment for the Arts committee, awarding grants to composers. He is survived by his wife and daughter.
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