Ritchie, Stanley (John)
Ritchie, Stanley (John)
Ritchie, Stanley (John) , Australian violinist and teacher; b. Yenda, New South Wales, April 21, 1935. He studied violin with Florent Hoogstoel at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (diploma, 1956). After receiving instruction in violin and chamber music from Jean Fournier and Sandor Vegh in Paris (1958–59), he went to the U.S. and continued his training with Joseph Fuchs at Yale Univ. (1959–60), Oscar Shumsky, and Samuel Kissell. He served as concerrmaster of the N.Y.C. Opera orch. (1963–65) and assoc. concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera orch. (1965–70); was a member of the N.Y. Chamber Soloists (1970–73), founder of the early music ensemble Aston Magna (1974), and lst violin in the Philadelphia String Quartet (1975–81). With his wife, harpsichordist and fortepianist Elizabeth Wright, he performed in the Duo Geminiani (from 1974); was prof. of violin and director of the Baroque orch. at Ind. Univ. (from 1982) and a prof. at the Juilliard School in N.Y. (from 1984). He has championed the performance of early music on period instruments.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire