Michael Quinn died on Saturday, January 21st, 2017. He studied music history with Daniel Pinkham, F. Judd Cooke, and Harold Johnson, and studied timpani and percussion with Alexander Lepak, Simon Sternberg, Vic Firth, and Karl Peinkofer. He held percussion positions with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He was timpanist with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich, and the La Scala Opera in Milan, and was a percussion tutor for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. He was for many years a guest teacher at the Civica Scuola di Musica, Milan, and taught a seminar in orchestral performance practice at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. He collaborated with the Toscanini Foundation in Italy and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and held seminars and workshops in Europe, the USA, and China.
“Mike Quinn had a sharp mind and a great sense of humor. It was obvious that he was a great teacher; even when making a point emphatically, he did so in a positive and charismatic way and made it easy to agree with him. Being sharp-witted and possessing a “Boston” sense of humor made every day with Mike a joy and adventure. Many days we enjoyed his company, laughing and learning. He was always energetic and with good reason: He made great friends, found amazing work, watched students rise and mature, lived in one of the most beautiful places on earth and, with certainty, he lived life well. He will be missed." — Andy Zildjian
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