February 20, 1962 - June 10, 2007
Please make a donation in memory of Sharon. |
Sharon Gewirtz Memorial
Beloved daughter of Cynthia Gewirtz and the late Jerome Gewirtz of Hartsdale. Beloved sister of Edward and Andrew Gewirtz. Beloved Aunt of Meir, Shlomo, Tzvi, Sammi, Tuvya, Harry, Yoni and Aaron.
Sharon graduated from Woodlands High School in 1980. She was working as a freelance violinist in the Boston area while actively pursuing a solo and chamber music career when her life was cut short by a sudden illness. Sharon completed her M.M. in Violin Performance at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. While at Stony Brook, she served as the Head Teaching Assistant for Undergraduate Chamber Music. Sharon graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Music, magna cum laude, with Honors in Music. Sharon had long been active as a professional musician in a wide variety of contexts. As a young girl she played local recitals, and for services at Woodlands Community Temple.
As a freelance violinist in Boston, she played with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and with the Boston Ballet Orchestra and had served as concertmaster for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra. For the past ten years she had been a committed member of New England String Ensemble, both as a musician in concert series and supporting its educational mission by performing in elementary schools with String Fever.
Sharon also lived in Montréal, where she was a substitute violinist with the Orchestre Symphonique du Montréal as well as a full-time member of the string orchestra I Musici de Montréal. Prior to this, she had lived in St. John's, Newfoundland, where she served as First Violinist to the Atlantic String Quartet.
Sharon had been a Fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival's Center for the Advanced Studies, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Banff Centre and Yale Summer School of Music in Norfolk. She has also participated in the Grand Tetons Music Festival, and she served as Principal second Violin at the Lyric Mountain Festival in Pennsylvania.
As a soloist, Sharon had appeared with Les Jeunes Virtuoses in Montréal and with the Yonkers Civic Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. She had also performed solo recitals throughout the New York and New England areas.
She will be remembered for her intelligence, keen violinistic skills and straightforward no-nonsense demeanor. What sometimes seemed like a tough veneer soon gave way to a warm, caring and supportive person. Her unique spirit and assured musical presence will be sorely missed by her friends and colleagues in the free-lance community.
Sharon's brother, Andrew, has requested that donations in Sharon's memory go to the New England String Ensemble:
New England String Orchestra
826 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
(617) 566-0430
|
