By SAMUEL RHODES

On June 23 the chamber music world was saddened by the loss of one of its most respected and valued artists. Isidore Cohen had been a member of several of the most celebrated chamber music groups our country has produced, and his passionate and immaculate violin playing and the knowledge and integrity of his music-making provided a memorable example both to colleagues and to the many young musicians with whom he came in contact. I count myself as very lucky to have had the opportunity to play with him on many occasions, first as one of those young musicians and later on as a colleague.

I did not know Izzie, as we all called him, during his eight years with the Juilliard String Quartet (1958-65). I met him soon after he left, at the Festival Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was concertmaster of what must surely have been one of the finest freelance orchestras ever to have existed. As a young musician, I was tremendously flattered when he asked me to take part in a performance of the Mozart G-Minor Quintet which was to be the first half of the opening concert of the very first Mostly Mozart Festival in Philharmonic Hall of the brand-new Lincoln Center in August 1967. Later, I was a guest artist several times with the Beaux Arts Trio—most memorably when I traveled to Amsterdam to do recordings with them of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet and the Schumann Piano Quartet and Quintet.

I always considered it to be a special and very particular challenge to play with Izzie. His playing graphically showed the direct influence of the music-making of Pablo Casals and Alexander Schneider—scrupulous attention to the exact indications of the composer; total exclusion of special or violinistic effects for their own sake. Izzie had a very personal way of expressing the nuances, the small ups and downs in building a musical phrase, that was uniquely his own and very difficult to match or complement. There was also an exacting standard of technical integrity to be lived up to.

Izzie was involved in the Marlboro Festival for more than 30 years as a senior member, one of those responsible for guiding the younger musicians who were part of the same ensemble. He took part numerous times in Musicians From Marlboro, the regular season's touring program sponsored by the festival. Marlboro itself is like an extended family and Izzie's wife, Judith (who passed away three years ago), his daughter Erica, and granddaughter Ana Luz, along with his son Allen and daughter-in-law, Ana Torrent, all have been important parts of the flavor and spirit of the summers there.

Read an obituary for Isidore Cohen.

The very last concert in which Izzie took part was a testament to the love and respect he inspired in young musicians. A group he had worked with during the previous summer—Aaron Boyd (B.M. '00, violin), violist Maurycy Banaszek, and cellist Priscilla Lee—took the initiative to arrange performances of Haydn's Seven Last Words on the Bargemusic series this past spring.

Izzie was an integral part of the audition committee for both the Marlboro Festival and the New York String Seminar. This winter, when auditions occur again, the huge gap that will appear at his place at the table will be extremely hard to bear.

Samuel Rhodes, a member of the Juilliard String Quartet and chair of the viola department, has been a faculty member since 1969.