JAVS Fall 2023

In Memoriam

Dr. Ronald M. Schmidt

Dr. Ronald Schmidt, former head of the DVG (Deutsches Viola-Gesellschaft/German Viola Society), Secretary, Vice President, and President of the International Viola Society.

Ronald M. Schmidt (1951-2023) was raised in the Rhineland, Germany, and was educated in both Germany and Northumbria, UK. He studied violin in high school and played in a local youth orchestra in Solingen, with which he toured Great Britain and Norway. He studied viola with Prof. Herbert Hoene at Aachen, Germany, and joined a chamber orchestra there as principal violist. But he decided to follow a different path and graduated as a medieval literary historian and academic librarian, a field which occupied most of his professional career. Ronald played with several chamber orchestras and chamber groups as was principal viola in a Bonn chamber orchestra. In 2009, he started on the viola d’amore and on the bass viol, and enjoyed delving into the discovery of unknown material for these instruments. It was at IVC XXXI at Kronberg, Germany (which he served as co-chair), that the viola community learned the direction of his leadership and primary goals: the creation of an IVS viola electronic website, expansion of the IVS

member sections, beginning with Norway, Poland and Lithuania, and to encourage THE STRAD to continue publishing an annual “viola issue.” In addition to his term as IVS President (2002-2004), Dr. Schmidt also served as IVS Secretary (2000-2002), and IVS Vice President (2011-2013). Within Germany, he was vice chairman of the German Viola Society and served on its executive board for many years.

Dr. Ronald Schmidt and Marina Louw, photographed in Stellenbosch, South Africa, during IVC XXXVII in 2009.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 39, No. 2, Fall 2023

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