Viola player John Lynch died in late 2014, aged 45, along with his partner Kevin Devine, 46, whom he was trying to save from drowning in the sea off Crete. Classic Melbourne has had several requests to acknowledge the place Lynch played in Australian music-making, and so here we present cellist Gabrielle Deakin’s moving tribute to her friend and colleague …
“There is a widespread notion that great leaders are by their very nature extroverted, charismatic types. “Leadership skills” is a concept which brings to mind a confident, highly articulate person who both inspires and requires the loyalty of subordinated followers. And yet, some of the most effective forms of leadership do not fit into this mould. There is also the quiet leadership of the true listener; the magnetism of the enthusiast; the natural deference, which a fair, loving person with a talent for seeing situations from the different perspectives of all involved, generates.
“John Lynch, expatriate viola player and highly skilled chamber musician, had all the above qualities; yet, with his quiet unassuming manner, I am not sure if he was ever truly aware of the degree and scope of his influence. His accidental death in the waves of an unpredictable Cretan sea eighteen months ago brought home to many, many people just how much John had contributed or was contributing to their lives. The process of grieving John is, in itself, proving to be a fertile and creative one; this is the most reliable testament of all to his importance in the lives of those he left behind.
“Along with a good number of people in the audience tonight at Trinity College Dublin, I have travelled from another country to be present. The occasion is a memorial concert, organized by the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), for their beloved—and sadly missed—viola and chamber music teacher. The performers include orchestral colleagues of John’s from the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, colleagues from the RIAM, young string quartets comprised of RIAM students and performers of Irish music with whom John enjoyed a long-standing personal and musical relationship.
“The homage to John undertaken by the RIAM is much more far-reaching in scope than this single memorial concert. The funds raised at tonight’s concert will go to support the John Lynch Quartet Fund; shortly following his death, the RIAM announced that it was commissioning a quartet of instruments from the instrument maker Michiel De Hoog, to be known as the “John Lynch Quartet”. The cost of these instruments has already been fully covered by donations. They will be loaned out to students of the RIAM who show themselves dedicated to chamber music playing and the John Lynch Quartet Fund will provide them with additional coaching.
“I can think of no more fitting homage. I was sixteen when I first started playing in a string quartet with John, a fellow student at the VCASS (Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School). Right from the start, John was the engine behind the project—his passion for buying records and listening to them obsessively conditioned our choice of repertoire. Three headstrong, opinionated girls, we would do battle with each other in rehearsal, but when John spoke, everyone listened. His passion fueled our passion and his personal talent for reconciling conflicting opinions, as well as his possession of musical skills we lacked (he was also a very proficient pianist with a highly developed sense of harmony) frequently gave him the last word in any discussion. I can keenly relate to why his death is so sorely grieved at the RIAM, where he was a core member of the Academy Chamber Ensemble, as well as a teacher.
The concert begins and it is clear from the start that it will be lovely, so palpable is the sense of a search for transcendence—the only meaningful function of music. John, with his natural humility, the leader who hung back and let others take the limelight, is at the centre of things, where he belongs.
Gabrielle Deakin attended a memorial fund-raising concert on February 27 in Dublin.
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Editor’s note: Gabrielle Deakin was cellist of the Binneas Quartet, which was formed in 1985 at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School under the tutelage of Marco van Pagee.
With violinists Miki Tsunoda and Siona Loughnane, she and John Lynch participated in the XII International Festival of Chamber Music in Stift Altenberg, Austria, in 1987 where they became the first non-European ensemble to win the festival’s prestigious chamber music award. During the same year, at the invitation of Russia’s renowned Borodin Quartet, they were the youngest competitors in the inaugural International Shostakovich String Quartet.
Following a number of years study at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and many engagements, the career paths of the players diverged with John Lynch pursuing further studies with Kim Kashkashian in Freiburg. He was appointed associate principal viola with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland, but came home to Australia regularly to see family and friends. He was also numbered among the elite players of the Australian World Orchestra.
