Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Dale Barltrop to head to Australia

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      Vancouver classical-music fans are losing a violin virtuoso to Oz.

      Today the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announced the Australian String Quartet has appointed Dale Barltrop as First Violin.

      Barltrop will conclude his tenure as concertmaster of the VSO at the end of the 2015/2016 Season.

      Brisbane-born Barltrop plans to continue in his position as concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony, and live full-time in Australia for the first time in 18 years.

      Barltrop was appointed to his VSO position in 2009.

      In a press statement, Barltrop said: “The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has been my family and my life for the past six years.  I am eternally grateful to the staff, board, patrons and the wonderful musicians of the VSO for allowing me the opportunity to serve this community.  As I look towards the next chapter of my career, I am excited by the prospect of returning to Australia to take up a position with the renowned Australian String Quartet while continuing my work with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  It is a dream come true to balance my two great passions for quartet and orchestral literature and an opportunity I could not pass up.  It is with a heavy heart that I will leave Vancouver, as I have found a home and friends here that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

      “Dale Barltrop has been an outstanding concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony," maestro Bramwell Tovey, VSO Music Director, added in the press announcement. "His artistry as been enormously appreciated by us all, from his solos in the great Strauss tone poems, Ein Heldenleben and Also Sprach Zarathustra, to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Mozartiana, to his virtuosic solo appearances, particularly the Britten and Schumann violin concertos and Vivaldi's Four Seasons, he has been an inspiration. As his career continues to develop with the Australian String Quartet we wish him well and thank him for his great contribution to the VSO.”

      Follow Janet Smith on Twitter @janetsmitharts.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Ann Coombs

      Jul 30, 2015 at 1:45pm

      We have all been blessed by this extraordinary concertmaster these past six years! This is an amazing opportunity for Dale and only wish him well. He will be missed and thank him and the VSO for the musical gifts that have been so generously shared.