Valter Despalj, a Croatian cellist passed away at the age of 76. Let’s see more details about Valter and his career journey in the following paragraphs.
What happened to Valter Despalj?
LUKA announced the demise of the Croatian cellist Valter Dešpalj on Social Media. It says,
It is with deep sadness I would like to announce that my dear professor Valter Dešpalj (1947-2023) has passed away this morning.
I was his student at the Zagreb Academy of Music from age 15 to 19 and consider him the biggest and main influence on my growth as a cellist, musician, and person in those crucial years, so important for the development of a young professional musician. It’s impossible to put into words how much he has done for me and all of his many great students. His legacy is huge and lives on. Dear Professor thank you for everything and rest in peace!
Cause of Death
Professor Valter Dešpalj passed away at the age of 76 at 9th April 2023. It was announced on social media by one of his students. His playing and words were a direct source of inspiration for many generations of musicians. His cello playing, crafted in both Julliard (New York) and Moscow Conservatory in the late ’60s, had a powerful and captivating beauty.
Music is the gift that keeps on giving. Making your own music is a wonderful way of paying tribute to your teacher. He has left a lasting legacy in you, and in all his other students as well. Keep playing!
About Valter Despalj
Valter was born in 1947. He is a Croatian cellist and a professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music. Dešpalj was born in Zadar, Croatia to Albanian parents and graduated from the Juilliard School cello with L. Rose, chamber music with F. Galimir, and Juilliard Quartet). He also took master classes with P. Casals, P. Fournier, and A. Navarra, and did two years of postgraduate study with G. Kozolupova at the Moscow Conservatory.
Career Journey
Despalj has performed all over the world, including performances at festivals in Gstaad, Lockenhaus, Kuhmo and Dubrovnik also in some of the most prestigious concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, Sydney Opera House, Amsterdam′s Concertgebouw, Moscow Conservatory Hall etc. He was soloist with orchestras including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Orchestra, Washington National Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and others, under baton of eminent conductors such as Roberto Benzi, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Vernon Handley, Günther Herbig, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Andrzej Markowski, David Zinman and others. Among his chamber music partners were Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Heinrich Schiff, Philippe Entremont, Yuri Bashmet, Tabea Zimmermann, Irena Grafenauer, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Alexandre Rabinovitch.
Obituary
RIP Valter Dešpalj (1947-2023). His playing and words were a direct source of inspiration for many generations of musicians. His cello playing, crafted in both Julliard (New York) and Moscow Conservatory in the late ’60s, had a powerful and captivating beauty (that you can experience yourself through his many recordings available). He was one of the first musicians who toured the East and the West at a time when this was not as easy and routine as it is today. He toured in the ‘70s, and bought an electric typewriter, as soon as it was available, to conduct all his communications east and west. Valter Dešpalj always wanted more from the cello, his body of work (available by several well-known publishers) is a testimony to that.
He also wanted more from cellists and he got that – the list of students who studied with him is outstanding. Most of all, he wanted more from music and that’s possibly the most important thing I learned from him. What seemed like a mere common 18th Century melody to me, was several very serious artistic choices to him. He knew what it takes to become a great composer and that made him an exceptional interpreter and arranger.
To the great fortune of all guitarists, Valter Dešpalj loved the guitar and decided to make arrangements for Bach’s Cello Suites and Violin Sonatas, with the help of guitarists Darko Petrinjak and Ištvan Romer, who helped him navigate through the instrument which he never played. He worked on the arrangements of the Cello Suites the longest, because, as a cellist, he knew them too well. He started making them in the ‘80s, but after dozens of revisions, he finally published them in 2012, only to revise them several more times after that. Every once in a while he would send me a bar or two of some Cello Suite, with a tiny little revision, because every note was a product of an artistic choice, and those never come too easily. That’s why he had a better understanding of music and truly great musicians – because he was one of them.
RIP Valter
Social Media Tributes
Bernardo Brizani Posted
Dear teacher Valter Despalj! You taught me what an organization is, a sensation A short time was a year studying in Zagreb. The picture is from 2005 on / the island of Mljet. Rest in peace professor.
Ljubisa Jovanovic posted
My dear friend, comrade, and brother by music and artistic passion, my Valter, has left us forever! Travel to heavenly infinities my dear!
You will remain in my heart forever. Every spoken word, and every shared experience, from Grožnjan, Portorož, Zagreb, and Belgrade are deeply imprinted in my soul! A great artist, connoisseur of music, and the thinnest and deepest threads of art! rest in peace.
Keep Reading,
David Brown death: 15 year-old Laois football player died tragically in Quad bike accident
Macio Dorrington death: How did the Popular Halifax guitarist die? Cause of death and obituary
Follow us on Twitter for more updates.