Thomas Rolston

Thomas Edmund Rolston ( Tom Rolston ; born October 31, 1932 in Vancouver ; † May 29, 2010 ibid) was a Canadian violinist, conductor and music teacher.

Rolston had violin lessons in Vancouver with Douglas Stewart and studied 1949–1950 with Roman Totenberg at the Mannes College of Music in New York, 1950–1953 with David Martin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and 1956–1957 at the Brussels Conservatory. From 1951 to 1958 he was a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra .

In 1958 he returned to Canada. There he worked until 1964 as concertmaster and conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and taught at the University of Alberta until 1979 . In 1959 he played the world premiere of Jean Coulthard's Violin Concerto with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra , and in 1969 he was one of the founders of the University of Alberta String Quartet . He introduced the Suzuki method of violin instruction in Canada and founded the Society for Talent Education in 1964 , which trained around 600 students in ten years.

At the Banff School of Fine Arts (BanffSFA), Rolston headed the string department from 1965 to 1971, then was music coordinator until 1977 and music director until 1979. He then became the director of BanffSFA's postgraduate programs. He founded the Canadian Chamber Orchestra here , and in 1991 led the Banff Festival Strings when recording the CD Intimate Baroque , where he played the solo violin part in Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto . From 1988 to 1991 he taught at the University of Calgary . In 1991 he was a juror at the Naumburg International Competition in New York.

For his services as a music teacher and promoter of music in Canada, he was honored with the 1974 Alberta Achievement Award and in 1982 a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music . Rolston was married to the pianist and harpist Isobel Moore . Her daughter is the cellist Shauna Rolston .

source

• Thomas Rolston ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .