John Ronayne

John Edward Joseph Ronayne (born October 16, 1931 in Dublin , † June 28, 2009 ) was an Irish violinist .

Ronayne was born in 1931 as the second child of Dublin truck driver Dominick Ronayne and his wife Marion, nee. Rooney was born in Dublin. He was initially a student of an institution of the Catholic lay order Christian Brothers , then attended the Dalton Tutorial School in Rathmines, Dublin. His father, an amateur violinist, gave him his first violin lessons. From the age of seven he attended the city music school, where Michael McNamara and John MacKenzie trained him. He gained his first successes at the classical music festival Feis Ceoil . Ronayne's role model was the violinist Jascha Heifetz , with whose records he came into contact.

Ronayne got his first job at the age of sixteen at the Gate Theater in Dublin. At the age of 17 he joined the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra (RELO). In 1949 he found employment with the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra (RESO). After successfully auditioning for the violinist Max Rostal , he received a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music in London . In addition to Rostal, Reginald Morley was one of his violin teachers in the British capital . There he also met his future wife Elgin, daughter of the German violin virtuoso Max Strub , whom he married and with whom he had three children. In 1953 he returned to his old employer in Dublin. Ronayne began working with the conductor Boyd Neel and the orchestra of the Royal Opera House . He then moved to the London Philharmonic Orchestra , with which he toured the Soviet Union. Under Sir Thomas Beecham he became co-concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1960 . He later accompanied this on a tour to North America. Ronayne played a. a. under Pierre Monteux , Rudolf Kempe , Fritz Reiner and Jean Martinon . He also realized productions for Radio Éireann . The conductor Tibor Paul brought him in 1963 as concertmaster at the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. During his time in Ireland he played orchestral and chamber music (with his wife) by Prokofjew, Strauss, Schönberg, Webern and Pfitzner. In 1965 he finally became concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. In 1972/73 he was again guest concertmaster of the Radio Telefís Éireann Symphony Orchestra (RTESO) in Dublin.

Ronayne returned to London in the 1960s. There he met popular musicians such as Bing Crosby , Louis Armstrong , The Beatles , Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra . Musically he accompanied Sinatra to Milan, Tehran and Tokyo. Ronayne has also been involved in several famous phonograms such as The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour , All You Need Is Love and Yellow Submarine .

literature

• Richard Pine: Music and Broadcasting in Ireland (= Broadcasting and Irish Society ). Four Courts Press, Dublin 2005, ISBN 1-85182-842-7 , pp. 203 ff.
• Who's who. What's What and Where in Ireland . Compiled by Zircon Publishing in conjunction with The Irish Times, Geoffrey Chapman Publishers, London 1973, p. 312 f.

Web links

• John Ronayne at Discogs (English)
• Violinist, leader of orchestras and Joyce devotee , in: The Irish Times , July 18, 2009.