Sergiu Luca, the Romanian-born American violinist, has died of cancer at the age of 67. Since 1983, he had been professor of violin at Rice University in Houston, the city in which he was also director of the Da Camera concert series, and the founder, in 1995, of period instrument ensemble Context.

Born in Bucharest in 1943, Luca studied in London with Max Rostal, and then in Switzerland, before moving to the US to study with Galamian at the Curtis Institute. He became an American citizen in 1966 and founded the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, Oregon.

From the late 1970s Luca was an influential advocate of period instrument performance, but continued to perform and record a wide range of music, including the Bartók sonatas and William Bolcom's Violin Concerto. Luca's principal violin was the 1733 'Earl of Falmouth' Bergonzi.

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