On October 2, 2016, Neville Marriner, a British violinist who founded Academy of St. Martin in the Feild and made it into one of the most world known and popularly recorded chamber orchestras; died after 92 years of living a wonderful life. Although there were no other details available about his death yet, the academy only announced the tragic news on their website.
It all started when a group of friends, composed of 10 to13 people were playing a western art type of music or as they like to call it "Baroque" in Mr. Marriner's living room. The group grew larger and larger and had their first concert in a particular church back in 1958. After that, the group got invited to make their first recording, little did they know that that actual recording was an open window to success.
A couple of hundreds of the group's albums were led by Mr. Marriner. At first, he led the group with only nods and gestures; and then he'd proceed to play a part with his violin.
They were able to earn millions from a soundtrack called "Amadeus (1984) from a Milos Norman film. The soundtrack became one of the best-selling classical recordings of all time and according to Mr. Marriner, that made them so rich at that time that they almost wanted to build their own concert hall.
His exact words were, "In those days, we were so rich we thought about building our own concert hall, converting an old power station in East London,"
The group had always been a success, even from the beginning.
As to what a critic once said, "Their sound was so well known on radio stations that Stereo Review once ran a cartoon in which a radio announcer was saying, '. . . played now by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields . . .' and a parrot in the room added, with a glazed look in its eyes, 'Neville Marriner conducting.' "
