This webpage has been set up for Richard Pollett's family, friends and colleagues, and music and arts organizations, to convey important information.
Richard Pollett
Funeral
A service celebrating Richard's life and legacy was held at Centenary Memorial Gardens on Thursday 6 October 2011 [Service booklet (full)|Eulogy only].
Obituary
An obituary appeared in The Courier Mail (Brisbane) on Saturday 17 December 2011 [Obituary].
Courier Mail Guest Book
The Courier Mail Guest Book has been kept online by a dear friend. We welcome messages of remembrance, which can be added in the right-hand pane at this site.
Richard Pollett Memorial Award
The Richard Pollett Memorial Award has been established by our family and close friends in association with the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) to honour Richard's memory. Award(s) will be made annually to provide support and encouragement to young violinists who display outstanding personal and musical attributes. We kindly request donations.
Further details can be found here (AYO website). If you would like to make a donation, please use the form located here.
[For concert organisers: A5 Concert Programme Insert]
Instrument bequest
From the November 2011 issue of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) newsletter: "ANAM has recently been made the beneficiary of an 1849 Pressenda violin, which has been provided on loan by Janet Holmes à Court. This instrument, to be made available to an outstanding violinist for their year at the Academy, is to be named the Richard Pollett Violin, in his memory. Mrs Holmes à Court said "I am pleased to be able to recognise Richard’s memory by attaching his name to the rich history of this instrument. I trust that this will provide some added significance for those musicians into whose hands it is entrusted"."
Kats-Chernin work/dedication
Elena Kats-Chernin composed a work titled For Richard for string orchestra, which premiered at the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) concert on Friday 28 October 2011 at 7:30pm in the Brisbane Powerhouse [Richard was to play the Australian premiere of Elena's "Selenite City" (Concerto for Violin and Piano) at that concert].
Elena writes "For Richard is a piece for strings that I wrote in the days following the tragic passing of this talented young violinist. While I never met him, I have had the pleasure of working with his mother, the violist Patricia Pollett, and had often heard about his development and progress as a young man and musician. When the QSO told me a few months ago that Richard would be one of the soloists in my double concerto Selenite City I was especially pleased. Richard and I exchanged emails about the project on the day before his accident. For Richard is a response to the great loss and while it is a commemoration, it also celebrates the brilliant young musician that he was. At the core of the piece is a melody derived from the name "Richard Pollett" that centres around D major/minor."
Ford work/dedication
Andrew Ford composed a work titled Cradle Song for violin and piano dedicated to Richard's memory. The premier is yet to be announced.
QYO announcement
Queensland Youth Orchestras (QYO) has established the Richard Pollett Memorial Scholarship, to be awarded each year to the Concertmaster of the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS).
Kendall National Violin Competition
The Kendall National Violin Competition has established a sonata prize in Richard's memory.
ABF
A tribute appeared in the November 2011 issue of Australian Bridge Federation Newsletter (Richard was a gifted bridge player who twice represented Queensland in the Australian National Championships).
Recordings
Some of Richard's recent performances can be found here.
Other online tributes
Thanks
We appreciate your kindness and thank you for your support and expressions of sympathy.
Philip and Patricia Pollett
[Last updated: 20:20 on 02 February 2012]
Archive
16/04/12: An article appeared in the May 2012 Edition of Strings Magazine.
04/03/12: Elena Kats-Chernin's For Richard (see above) was performed by the ARCO Chamber Orchestra at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith at 3:00pm. It was heard live on Sunday Live (ABC Classic FM).
02/03/12: A performance of George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III) by Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg (pianos), and Claire Edwards and Vanessa Tomlinson (percussion), was dedicted to Richard's memory (8:30pm, Ian Hanger Recital Hall, Griffith University, South Bank, Brisbane).
06/02/12: An article titled "Richard Pollett Scholarship" appeared in the January to March 2012 QYO Newsletter "Tutti".
01/02/12: The Courier Mail Guest Book was made permanent by a dear friend.
17/12/11: An obituary appeared in The Courier Mail (Brisbane) [Obituary].
06/12/11: Articles titled "Richard Pollett's musical legacy to live on" and "Monument a tribute to road death spectre" appeared in the Westside News (Brisbane).
04/12/11: The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) celebrated Richard's life and legacy with a memorial concert in the South Melbourne Town Hall at 2:00pm on Sunday 4 December.
01/12/11: Dr Bruce Flegg, local member for Moggil in the Queensland State Parliament, made a speech to Parliament concerning Richard's accident and the Richard Pollett Memorial Award [Transcript|Additional commentary].
20/11/11: A news article appeared in the December 2011 Issue of The Strad (magazine).
17/11/11: There was a concert in Richard's memory at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. It was streamed live on their website: www.conservatorio.ch
13/11/11: Paul Wright (Richard's violin teacher at the Australian National Academy of Music) played the 2nd movement of Barber's violin concerto in Richard's memory at the inaugural concert of the Perth Symphony Orchestra.
06/11/11: For Richard was performed by the University of Queensland Chamber Orchestra at their debut concert on Sunday 6 November 2011 at 11.30am in the Long Room of Customs House in Brisbane.
05/11/11: The Redland Sinfonia (Brisbane) dedicated a concert to Richard's memory.
28/10/11: Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) concert on Friday 28 October at 7:30pm in the Brisbane Powerhouse was dedicated to Richard's memory [poster]. Richard was to play the Australian premiere of Elena's "Selenite City" (Concerto for Violin and Piano) at the concert. It was played by violinist Lachlan O'Donnell, a friend of Richard, and a musician whose playing Richard greatly admired. Elena Kats-Chernin's new work For Richard was premiered at the concert.
27/10/11: An article appeared in What's on at Qld Con!
26/10/11: An article titled "Music from the heart - concert tribute to young violinist" appeared in UQ news.
24/10/11: An article titled "Violinist Richard Pollett killed during visit to hometown Brisbane to play with Queensland Symphony Orchestra" appeared in The Courier-Mail.
23/10/11: The Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS) National Youth Concerto Competition (NYCC) finals concert on Sunday 23rd October at 3:00pm was dedicated to Richard's memory.
18/10/11: An article appeared in Musica Viva's E-newsletter "KnowtheScore".
16/10/11: Professor Paul Greenfield AO, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland, paid tribute to Richard at the UQ Symphony Orchestra concert, 2:00 Sunday 16th October in the Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
14/10/11: The Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra dedicated a concert to Richard's memory.
08/10/11: Richard's prize-winning performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the 2010 YPA Strings Final in Adelaide was broadcast on ABC Classic FM at 14:45 Eastern Daylight Time.
06/10/11: Griffith Chamber Players dedicated a performance of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll to Richard's memory (at the QCM) [YouTube].
06/10/11: A service celebrating Richard's life and legacy was held at Centenary Memorial Gardens (Brisbane).
05/10/11: Staff of Kenmore Cycles placed a white painted bike at the scene of Richard's accident as a memorial (this is a worldwide tradition to honour cyclists who have lost their lives on the road, both as a memorial to them and to serve as a reminder to motorists of the vulnerability of cyclists) [photo].
04/10/11: Funeral notices appeared in The Courier Mail (Brisbane), The Age (Melbourne), The Sydney Morning Herald and The Advertiser (Adelaide).
29/09/11: The Sydney Camerata dedicated a performance of Strauss Metamorphosen to Richard's memory [YouTube|Review (SoundsLikeSydney)]
