Celebrating Donald McInnes

The life of Donald McInnes, Camerata Pacifica’s first principal violist, was celebrated at the Music Academy of the West’s Lehmann Hall.

McInnes, who studied at the academy from 1954 to 1956 and was a member of the faculty from 1982 to 2012, died in October at his home in Rancho Mirage aged 85.

The UCSB graduate was the first recipient of Camerata’s Lifetime Achievement Award and appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and L’Orchestre National de France during his glittering career.

He was also associated with many of the world’s top musicians, including Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, and Yo-Yo Ma.

McInnes also had a long association with the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.

MAW President Shauna Quill and Dean Tiffany DeVries welcomed guests including Dr. Robert Weinman, Joan Rutkowski, and Teresa McWilliams, while the Rev. Mark Asman, former rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, gave the benediction.

A recording of Schubert’s “A Litany for All Souls Day” played by McInnes and “A Cello Sonata” by Rachmaninoff, Schubert’s “Andante,” transcribed for viola, was played by McInnes’ student Richard O’Neill – formerly with Camerata Pacifica and now with the Takács Quartet – and pianist Margaret McDonald.

Ana Papakhian, president of Camerata Pacifica, joined McInnes’ friends Alita Rhodes, Tom Tatton, and Dennis Naiman in lauding the musician.

The moving service concluded with Mahler’s “Symphony No.5, ‘Adagietto’” played by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Bernstein.