Geoff Nuttall, co-founder and first violinist of the world-renowned St. Lawrence String Quartet and artist-in-residence at Stanford, died Oct. 19 of cancer. He was 56.
Geoff Nuttall captivated students at Stanford and audiences internationally along with his energy and excitement for music. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)
Nuttall was known for his inspiring and infectious energy that radiated on stage as a performer and within the classroom as an instructor. His fellow faculty, friends, and fans described how he brought a selected playfulness to the music he performed and his pure, unfiltered passion for music – and his humor, with words and music – made him a joy to take heed to and watch.
“Geoff had such an enthralling and ebullient manner, boundless enthusiasm, and a disarming humorousness that might draw audiences into the performance,” said Stephen Hinton, chair of the Department of Music at Stanford. Hinton was on the hiring committee that helped bring Nuttall, and the musical group he co-founded, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), to be the university’s ensemble-in-residence greater than 20 years ago. “Geoff far exceeded what our expectations were for an artist-in-residence.”
Along with SLSQ, a few of Nuttall’s many contributions to the Stanford community included directing Stanford’s chamber music program; hosting immersive, intensive seminars and workshops for aspiring musicians of all ages and backgrounds; collaborating with faculty on courses; offering one-on-one coaching and mentorship; and performing commonly on campus – including “Sundays with the St. Lawrence” at Bing Concert Hall and other live shows with the SLSQ all year long.
“Geoff was an incredible and transformative presence on the campus,” said Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. “His electric, boundless enthusiasm – including for all things [composer Joseph] Haydn – and his vast musical knowledge inspired all of us. Along along with his colleagues on the SLSQ, he forged connections all around the campus.”
Making Stanford his musical home
In 1989, Nuttall co-founded SLSQ in Toronto, Canada, with Barry Shiffman (violin), Lesley Robertson (viola), and Marina Hoover (cello). From early in its formation, the ensemble garnered critical acclaim and earned prestigious awards.
SLSQ became Stanford’s ensemble-in-residence in 1998 and has been a vibrant a part of the campus and area people ever since.
“Geoff Nuttall was a passionate musician and a dedicated teacher,” said Condoleezza Rice, who served as provost from 1993 to 1999 and is now the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution. Rice, who can be an achieved classical pianist, added: “He was a force at Stanford and within the musical world. He can be missed but never forgotten.”
At Stanford, the ensemble performed inside traditional campus venues like Bing Concert Hall and Memorial Church, but unexpected places as well, comparable to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford libraries, research labs, residence halls, and Stanford Medicine facilities, including Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
“Geoff was a gifted artist and a beloved colleague, mentor, and friend to so a lot of us across the Stanford community,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. “Regardless of the occasion, he all the time infused a way of hope and wonder in those around him. I’ll miss him dearly.”
Creative pedagogical approach
Together with his SLSQ colleagues, Nuttall championed latest and inventive types of instruction at Stanford and in the broader community. He worked closely with Stanford faculty to introduce audiences to music in ways in which were each modern and accessible.
Nuttall’s spontaneous and interesting approach to talking about music made him an exceptional instructor in addition to a musician. “He had a rare ability to speak not only in music but additionally in words,” said Hinton.
While Nuttall was known for his passion for Haydn, his musical tastes were eclectic and ecumenical, said Hinton. (Nuttall had a notorious personal vinyl collection – he had 10,000 LP records in his lounge and would take heed to music on a regular basis.)
Those varied tastes carried through to Nuttall’s pedagogical approach: Not only did he introduce students to a broad classical repertory, but he also paid close attention to contemporary pieces as well.
Nuttall also took a varied approach to how he connected with students – of all backgrounds and skill levels – and helped pioneer a various range of musical programming at Stanford and beyond.
For instance, along with the SLSQ, Nuttall launched the Emerging String Quartet Program (ESQP) to offer mentorship to promising young chamber musicians. Additionally they organized the SLSQ Chamber Music Seminar, an intensive, 10-day program where aspiring musicians – whether skilled or incredibly passionate – are mentored by a member of the quartet in what they describe as a supportive and dynamic environment.
Working with Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, Nuttall and his SLSQ colleagues collaborated on Why Music Matters, an intensive course that explored music from many alternative perspectives and different timespans. In this system, which also included instruction in music theory and history, cultural history, and music technology, students were in a position to attend live performances and have discussions with SLSQ and other musicians.
Nuttall, together with the opposite members of SLSQ, also worked with Hinton to expand their course offerings through Stanford Online. Their classes included one on Beethoven and one other on Haydn and had grown out of courses they’d taught in person for the Stanford Continuing Studies program. Lectures are interspersed with commentary and musical demonstrations by the quartet.
Nuttall, along with the SLSQ, also steadily played works composed by his Stanford colleagues, including Jonathan Berger and Mark Applebaum.
Reflecting on what he and SLSQ delivered to the campus, Nuttall once remarked: “As a string quartet, what are you able to add to the material of a university? We work with composers. We use the quartet as a weapon to attach different departments. We try to interact the scholars on a grassroots level.”
Nuttall also was deeply committed to engaging with the broader community. His outreach efforts were extensive and together with SLSQ, the group performed for residents at local retirement communities and schools; they even played for inmates on the San Francisco County jail.
Nuttall brought music with him wherever he went. As Satz recalled: “Once I was running a series on inequality, he was willing to leap in and talk concerning the string quartet as an egalitarian type of organization and not using a single conductor,” she said, adding: “His music, teaching, and his recordings have touched so many.”
Defying expectations, his own and of his audiences
Nuttall defied what was expected from a chamber musician. Some have called Nuttall a “rock star.” Former SLSQ member and co-founder Barry Shiffman described him as “the ‘Mad Max’ of the group,” and the Latest York Times ran a headline that labeled him “the Jon Stewart of Chamber Music” (of their obituary of the magnetic musician, they described him as a “first amongst equals”).
On the 2015 TEDxStanford event, Geoff Nuttall with the St. Lawrence String Quartet speaks on the humor of composer Joseph Haydn. (Image credit: Stanford News Service)
Nuttall was famous for his energetic and physical musical performances, jumping out of his chair, bouncing around on stage, and enthusiastically moving his whole body.
“Considered one of his signature traits as a performer were his kinetic feet,” Hinton said.
“The best way that he moved on stage was all the time very animated and exciting to look at,” said Chris Lorway, executive director of Stanford Live. “He was absolutely in love with the music that he played and was excited to share it with people. That got here across in the way in which that he interacted with an audience – he all the time tried to channel his own excitement to them.”
While Nuttall’s performances were vibrant and varied, they were also filled with grace and humility – each toward the composer and his audience. Nuttall made no assumptions about his audience’s musical expertise and even his own.
“He all the time treated each piece as if it was an audience’s first time hearing it, and in some ways, his first time performing it,” Lorway said.
As Nuttall himself once reflected: “We’ve all the time been inspired by the concept of – well, we attempt to be amateurs, all the time. You must do it since you adore it and it’s easy to lose track of the proven fact that you’re alleged to really adore it to succeed.”
Over his life, Nuttall acquired many accolades with SLSQ. The quartet received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for his or her performance of Yiddishbbuk, a group of works by the Argentinean American composer Osvaldo Golijov. Their recording of Robert Schumann Quartets received a Juno Award, granted by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for Best Classical Album, in addition to the German critics’ award Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Other notable awards include top prizes on the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 1992 and the Young Concert Artist Auditions.
Nuttall’s musical profession took him all around the world; with SLSQ he performed over 3,000 live shows. They toured internationally and played commonly at a few of North America’s more prestigious music festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Live shows, and at Spoleto Festival USA, which Nuttall also directed.
Nuttall also helped SLSQ navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was captured in a documentary film.
Nuttall was admired and adored by many.
Inside in the future of SLSQ sharing the news of Nuttall’s death on their Facebook page, there have been over 250 comments from fans, colleagues, and former students reflecting on how his outsized personality had an outlasting impact on their lives.
One post, from former pupil Adrian Fung, who first met Nuttall when he was 15 years old, read: “I might not be knowledgeable musician today if it weren’t for his … insistence that I’m going into music and go ‘bananas.’ He taught me then … to all the time play any concert as if it were my last. He did this to the tip, fidgeting with such visceral intensity, exuberant joy, incredible sweetness, and depth of sorrow. … We all know he never left anything on the table. I hope to honor him by aspiring to play and live day-after-day forward as if it had that lapel-grabbing urgency and significant ‘last concert’ vibrancy. He truly lived that way.”
Lots of the messages noted how Nuttall died too soon.
Personal life
Nuttall was born in Texas and started playing the violin on the age of 8 after he moved to London, Ontario.
Nuttall went on to check music under Lorand Fenyves at The Banff Centre, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Toronto, where he received his bachelor of music degree in performance.
With SLSQ, Nuttall also served as graduate ensemble-in-residence on the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Hartt School of Music, acting as teaching assistants to the Juilliard, Tokyo, and Emerson String Quartets, respectively.
Nuttall lived in Portola Valley and is survived by his wife, violinist Livia Sohn, and their two sons, in addition to his sister, Jennifer Nuttall of Dublin, Ireland, and his mother, Suzanne Nuttall of London, Ontario.
The SLSQ In Memoriam may be read on their website.
Nuttall’s family has created The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund to advance Dr. Christopher Chen’s cancer research at Stanford University. Geoff was in a position to proceed living his life as fully as possible under the outstanding and thoughtful care of Dr. Chen. In lieu of flowers, please consider a tax-deductible donation, which may be made online at memorial.stanford.edu by choosing “Other Stanford Designation” and entering The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund within the “Other” text box, or by check payable to Stanford University with The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund indicated on the memo line, mailed to Development Services, P.O. Box 20466, Stanford, CA 94309, or by phone at 650-725-4360.
Geoff Nuttall, co-founder and first violinist of the world-renowned St. Lawrence String Quartet and artist-in-residence at Stanford, died Oct. 19 of cancer. He was 56.
Geoff Nuttall captivated students at Stanford and audiences internationally along with his energy and excitement for music. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)
Nuttall was known for his inspiring and infectious energy that radiated on stage as a performer and within the classroom as an instructor. His fellow faculty, friends, and fans described how he brought a selected playfulness to the music he performed and his pure, unfiltered passion for music – and his humor, with words and music – made him a joy to take heed to and watch.
“Geoff had such an enthralling and ebullient manner, boundless enthusiasm, and a disarming humorousness that might draw audiences into the performance,” said Stephen Hinton, chair of the Department of Music at Stanford. Hinton was on the hiring committee that helped bring Nuttall, and the musical group he co-founded, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), to be the university’s ensemble-in-residence greater than 20 years ago. “Geoff far exceeded what our expectations were for an artist-in-residence.”
Along with SLSQ, a few of Nuttall’s many contributions to the Stanford community included directing Stanford’s chamber music program; hosting immersive, intensive seminars and workshops for aspiring musicians of all ages and backgrounds; collaborating with faculty on courses; offering one-on-one coaching and mentorship; and performing commonly on campus – including “Sundays with the St. Lawrence” at Bing Concert Hall and other live shows with the SLSQ all year long.
“Geoff was an incredible and transformative presence on the campus,” said Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. “His electric, boundless enthusiasm – including for all things [composer Joseph] Haydn – and his vast musical knowledge inspired all of us. Along along with his colleagues on the SLSQ, he forged connections all around the campus.”
Making Stanford his musical home
In 1989, Nuttall co-founded SLSQ in Toronto, Canada, with Barry Shiffman (violin), Lesley Robertson (viola), and Marina Hoover (cello). From early in its formation, the ensemble garnered critical acclaim and earned prestigious awards.
SLSQ became Stanford’s ensemble-in-residence in 1998 and has been a vibrant a part of the campus and area people ever since.
“Geoff Nuttall was a passionate musician and a dedicated teacher,” said Condoleezza Rice, who served as provost from 1993 to 1999 and is now the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution. Rice, who can be an achieved classical pianist, added: “He was a force at Stanford and within the musical world. He can be missed but never forgotten.”
At Stanford, the ensemble performed inside traditional campus venues like Bing Concert Hall and Memorial Church, but unexpected places as well, comparable to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford libraries, research labs, residence halls, and Stanford Medicine facilities, including Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
“Geoff was a gifted artist and a beloved colleague, mentor, and friend to so a lot of us across the Stanford community,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. “Regardless of the occasion, he all the time infused a way of hope and wonder in those around him. I’ll miss him dearly.”
Creative pedagogical approach
Together with his SLSQ colleagues, Nuttall championed latest and inventive types of instruction at Stanford and in the broader community. He worked closely with Stanford faculty to introduce audiences to music in ways in which were each modern and accessible.
Nuttall’s spontaneous and interesting approach to talking about music made him an exceptional instructor in addition to a musician. “He had a rare ability to speak not only in music but additionally in words,” said Hinton.
While Nuttall was known for his passion for Haydn, his musical tastes were eclectic and ecumenical, said Hinton. (Nuttall had a notorious personal vinyl collection – he had 10,000 LP records in his lounge and would take heed to music on a regular basis.)
Those varied tastes carried through to Nuttall’s pedagogical approach: Not only did he introduce students to a broad classical repertory, but he also paid close attention to contemporary pieces as well.
Nuttall also took a varied approach to how he connected with students – of all backgrounds and skill levels – and helped pioneer a various range of musical programming at Stanford and beyond.
For instance, along with the SLSQ, Nuttall launched the Emerging String Quartet Program (ESQP) to offer mentorship to promising young chamber musicians. Additionally they organized the SLSQ Chamber Music Seminar, an intensive, 10-day program where aspiring musicians – whether skilled or incredibly passionate – are mentored by a member of the quartet in what they describe as a supportive and dynamic environment.
Working with Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, Nuttall and his SLSQ colleagues collaborated on Why Music Matters, an intensive course that explored music from many alternative perspectives and different timespans. In this system, which also included instruction in music theory and history, cultural history, and music technology, students were in a position to attend live performances and have discussions with SLSQ and other musicians.
Nuttall, together with the opposite members of SLSQ, also worked with Hinton to expand their course offerings through Stanford Online. Their classes included one on Beethoven and one other on Haydn and had grown out of courses they’d taught in person for the Stanford Continuing Studies program. Lectures are interspersed with commentary and musical demonstrations by the quartet.
Nuttall, along with the SLSQ, also steadily played works composed by his Stanford colleagues, including Jonathan Berger and Mark Applebaum.
Reflecting on what he and SLSQ delivered to the campus, Nuttall once remarked: “As a string quartet, what are you able to add to the material of a university? We work with composers. We use the quartet as a weapon to attach different departments. We try to interact the scholars on a grassroots level.”
Nuttall also was deeply committed to engaging with the broader community. His outreach efforts were extensive and together with SLSQ, the group performed for residents at local retirement communities and schools; they even played for inmates on the San Francisco County jail.
Nuttall brought music with him wherever he went. As Satz recalled: “Once I was running a series on inequality, he was willing to leap in and talk concerning the string quartet as an egalitarian type of organization and not using a single conductor,” she said, adding: “His music, teaching, and his recordings have touched so many.”
Defying expectations, his own and of his audiences
Nuttall defied what was expected from a chamber musician. Some have called Nuttall a “rock star.” Former SLSQ member and co-founder Barry Shiffman described him as “the ‘Mad Max’ of the group,” and the Latest York Times ran a headline that labeled him “the Jon Stewart of Chamber Music” (of their obituary of the magnetic musician, they described him as a “first amongst equals”).
On the 2015 TEDxStanford event, Geoff Nuttall with the St. Lawrence String Quartet speaks on the humor of composer Joseph Haydn. (Image credit: Stanford News Service)
Nuttall was famous for his energetic and physical musical performances, jumping out of his chair, bouncing around on stage, and enthusiastically moving his whole body.
“Considered one of his signature traits as a performer were his kinetic feet,” Hinton said.
“The best way that he moved on stage was all the time very animated and exciting to look at,” said Chris Lorway, executive director of Stanford Live. “He was absolutely in love with the music that he played and was excited to share it with people. That got here across in the way in which that he interacted with an audience – he all the time tried to channel his own excitement to them.”
While Nuttall’s performances were vibrant and varied, they were also filled with grace and humility – each toward the composer and his audience. Nuttall made no assumptions about his audience’s musical expertise and even his own.
“He all the time treated each piece as if it was an audience’s first time hearing it, and in some ways, his first time performing it,” Lorway said.
As Nuttall himself once reflected: “We’ve all the time been inspired by the concept of – well, we attempt to be amateurs, all the time. You must do it since you adore it and it’s easy to lose track of the proven fact that you’re alleged to really adore it to succeed.”
Over his life, Nuttall acquired many accolades with SLSQ. The quartet received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for his or her performance of Yiddishbbuk, a group of works by the Argentinean American composer Osvaldo Golijov. Their recording of Robert Schumann Quartets received a Juno Award, granted by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for Best Classical Album, in addition to the German critics’ award Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Other notable awards include top prizes on the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 1992 and the Young Concert Artist Auditions.
Nuttall’s musical profession took him all around the world; with SLSQ he performed over 3,000 live shows. They toured internationally and played commonly at a few of North America’s more prestigious music festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Live shows, and at Spoleto Festival USA, which Nuttall also directed.
Nuttall also helped SLSQ navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was captured in a documentary film.
Nuttall was admired and adored by many.
Inside in the future of SLSQ sharing the news of Nuttall’s death on their Facebook page, there have been over 250 comments from fans, colleagues, and former students reflecting on how his outsized personality had an outlasting impact on their lives.
One post, from former pupil Adrian Fung, who first met Nuttall when he was 15 years old, read: “I might not be knowledgeable musician today if it weren’t for his … insistence that I’m going into music and go ‘bananas.’ He taught me then … to all the time play any concert as if it were my last. He did this to the tip, fidgeting with such visceral intensity, exuberant joy, incredible sweetness, and depth of sorrow. … We all know he never left anything on the table. I hope to honor him by aspiring to play and live day-after-day forward as if it had that lapel-grabbing urgency and significant ‘last concert’ vibrancy. He truly lived that way.”
Lots of the messages noted how Nuttall died too soon.
Personal life
Nuttall was born in Texas and started playing the violin on the age of 8 after he moved to London, Ontario.
Nuttall went on to check music under Lorand Fenyves at The Banff Centre, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Toronto, where he received his bachelor of music degree in performance.
With SLSQ, Nuttall also served as graduate ensemble-in-residence on the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Hartt School of Music, acting as teaching assistants to the Juilliard, Tokyo, and Emerson String Quartets, respectively.
Nuttall lived in Portola Valley and is survived by his wife, violinist Livia Sohn, and their two sons, in addition to his sister, Jennifer Nuttall of Dublin, Ireland, and his mother, Suzanne Nuttall of London, Ontario.
The SLSQ In Memoriam may be read on their website.
Nuttall’s family has created The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund to advance Dr. Christopher Chen’s cancer research at Stanford University. Geoff was in a position to proceed living his life as fully as possible under the outstanding and thoughtful care of Dr. Chen. In lieu of flowers, please consider a tax-deductible donation, which may be made online at memorial.stanford.edu by choosing “Other Stanford Designation” and entering The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund within the “Other” text box, or by check payable to Stanford University with The Geoff Nuttall Memorial Fund indicated on the memo line, mailed to Development Services, P.O. Box 20466, Stanford, CA 94309, or by phone at 650-725-4360.
