Violist Burton Fine has Died, Aged 94

Having begun his career as a research chemist, Fine subsequently spent four decades playing the viola in the Boston Symphony

The American violist Burton Fine, who led the viola section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1964 until 1993, has passed away at the age of 94.

Born in Philadelphia in 1930, Fine showed early promise as a composer as well as on the violin, and at the age of nine he won a composition prize. The winning piece, a cradle song, was orchestrated and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski.

Fine had ambitions to study composition with Giancarlo Menotti, but his application was rejected, and so he continued with his work on the violin. From 1944 through 1948, he studied violin with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music until his graduation at age 17. Fine had the opportunity to attend Galamian's summer camps at Meadowmount, where all the violinists were required to spend some time playing the viola in string quartets.

He then enrolled to study chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and followed this with a Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Upon his graduation in 1955, he got a job with NASA in Cleveland.

Fine continued to play, however, and when a position opened up in the second violin section of the Boston Symphony in 1963, he took the day off to practice and auditioned the very next day — and was ultimately offered the role. After a year in the job, he switched to the viola section, serving as the orchestra's principal violist until 1993 and playing in the section until his retirement in 2004.

Throughout his career, he made solo appearances on viola and viola d’amore with the BSO, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and other ensembles around the country. Fine also taught viola and chamber music at New England Conservatory.

You can read a personal blog post about Fine's life, written by his daughter Elaine, here.

Our condolences to Fine's family, friends, and colleagues.