Gerald Jarvis

Gerald Jarvis was born in Vancouver on April 19, 1930. Jarvis studied violin in Vancouver 1935-8 with Frederick Geaves and 1938-48 with Douglas Stewart. He first played with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestrain 1947. In 1948 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the RAM. He remained in England for several years, playing first with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and 1952-4 with the Royal Opera House Orchestra. In 1954 he went to Brussels to study, and the same year was concertmaster with Martha Graham’s Dance Company Orchestra on its first European tour. In 1954 Jarvis returned to Canada to play first violin with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, remaining until 1959. In 1960 he returned to England, as co-principal of the London Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux. During this period he became a founding member of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He was concertmaster 1963-8 of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and joint concertmaster 1969-72 of the London Philharmonic. In 1973 Jarvis returned to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster. 13 years, working closely with and contributing greatly to the orchestra’s success under conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama. Jarvis earned the nickname, ‘the face of the VSO.’ At Akiyama’s invitation, Jarvis became concertmaster in 1987 of the Osaka Philharmonic, and in 1990 took on duties as concertmaster of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. In 1990 he began teaching at the Chautauqua Summer Festival in New York, and in 1991 he became a guest professor at the Musashino University of Music in Japan. In May 1990 he performed a special concert with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra pianist Linda Lee Thomas. He pursued his career in Japan, returning annually to Chautauqua. He gave his last concert in Japan in September 1995, before falling ill with lung cancer. Thomas raised a fund that enabled Jarvis to return to Vancouver and then Chautauqua, where he died on January 15, 1996. He was married to mezzo soprano Delia Wallis.