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Felix Kok--Play music online

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description: The violinist Felix Kok, who has died aged 86, was the leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) from 1965 to 1988. He was with the CBSO through the tenure of the conductors Hugo Rign ...

The violinist Felix Kok, who has died aged 86, was the leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) from 1965 to 1988. He was with the CBSO through the tenure of the conductors Hugo Rignold, Louis Frémaux and, for Kok's last eight years with the orchestra, Simon Rattle, whom he was partly responsible for securing. Kok's calm, reasonable but firm approach helped to stabilise what was then an unpredictable and rather rocky institution. With Rattle, he led the CBSO in many of its finest hours.

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Danse Macabre - Sym..《Saint-SaëNs: Org..》37

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He was part of an exceptional intake of string players in the early 1940s at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he was taught by Rowsby Woof. Kok was born in Brakpan, South Africa, and his early talent on the violin was nurtured by a teacher who encouraged him to move to London for lessons. His family relocated in 1938 and he attended Haberdashers' Aske's school, then situated in Cricklewood, north-west London, before entering the RAM on a scholarship.

His contemporaries at the RAM included Colin Sauer (who became the leader of the Dartington String Quartet) and the fine violin player Peter Mountain. They had regular lessons together, with Kok the shy one of the three, less able to withstand Woof's slightly bullying approach. But Woof, also a good pianist, accompanied Kok in his final RAM recital, an honour given only to those whom the tutor respected. Kok carried off many of the RAM's prizes.

His other colleagues at this time included Patrick Halling, Ernest Scott, Granville Jones, Rosemary Green and William Armon. These were string players with extraordinary technical assurance, rigorously trained in the old school. Kok played second violin to Harry Blech in the Blech Quartet and founded the Beaufort Trio in 1947. Mountain recalls Kok also leading the Boyd Neel Orchestra in the absence of the usual leader, Maurice Clare: "We always enjoyed his leading – he led firmly and his playing had strength and truthfulness."

Kok joined Walter Legge's Philharmonia, playing under Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Guido Cantelli, Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler. By 1960 he was leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He moved five years later to the CBSO, where he remained for 23 years and was succeeded by Peter Thomas. Radio 3 marked Kok's retirement in 1988 with a farewell concert in which he played the solo from Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life).
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A few years after his retirement, Kok was involved in an accident in Portugal, where he had gone to help found a youth orchestra for the Gulbenkian Foundation. After slipping under a train, his left leg was amputated and he sustained injuries to his arms. He managed to come back to the CBSO leader's chair for a 10-night opera run.

Outside the orchestral environment Kok enjoyed giving recitals with the pianist Ann Steel, whom he married in 1955. At these events his assured technique and warm, open sound on his fine Guadagnini violin contributed to performances as memorable as any given by more familiar household names.

Ann died in 1998. He is survived by three sons, one of whom is the conductor Nicholas Kok. His daughter predeceased him.

• Felix Kok, violinist and orchestra leader, born 1 August 1924; died 11 August 2010

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Felix Kok--Play music online

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