Gaston Dufresne (September 9, 1898 – December 6, 1998) was the principal

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

in the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

from 1927 to 1957 and with the Florida West Coast Symphony from 1963 to 1979. He also taught solfège, a singing technique used to teach pitch. Among his contrabass students were American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Leroy Anderson and Boston Symphony principal trumpeter

Roger Voisin Roger Louis Voisin (June 26, 1918 – February 13, 2008) was an American classical trumpeter. In 1959, The New York Times called him "one of the best-known trumpeters in this country." Performing career Among the most influential trumpet p ...

. Dufresne taught solfège to Voisin and to Boston Symphony hornist Richard Mackey. Dufresne wrote '' Develop Sight Reading'', a book of progressive sight reading studies which has been transcribed for use by all orchestral instruments. Dufresne was born 9 September 1898 in Lille, France and died on 6 December 1998 in Sarasota, Florida.

References

French classical double-bassists Male double-bassists 1898 births 1998 deaths Musicians from Lille French centenarians 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century French musicians 20th-century double-bassists 20th-century French male musicians Men centenarians {{double-bassist-stub