MARCOSSON, SOL (10 June 1869-10 Jan. 1940) was Cleveland's premiere violinist for several decades and a key performer in some of the city's leading musical organizations. Born in Louisville, Ky., he received his early training there before going to Europe to study at the Berlin Hochschule under the violinist Joseph Joachim. He toured in Europe before returning to the United States, where he played first violin in Boston's Mendelssohn Quintet and in the quartet of the New York Philharmonic Club. Brought to Cleveland in 1895 by the FORTNIGHTLY MUSICAL CLUB, Marcosson added his 1730 Cremona violin to the city's PHILHARMONIC STRING QUARTET in 1897, filling the group's first violin chair for the next 30 years. He also served as concertmaster for the Chicago Symphony, for JOHANN BECK's Cleveland Symphony Orchestra of 1900-01, and for the inaugural season of the present CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA in 1918-19. As a teacher, he directed the violin dept. at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, N.Y., and at Lake Erie College in Painesville. In the 1920s he opened the Marcosson Music School in the Fine Arts Bldg. and later maintained a studio in Cleveland's Carnegie Hall. Married since 1902 to the former Dorothy Frew of Youngstown, O., he had 4 children: Fred, John, June, and Ruth. He was also survived by his brother Issac Marcosson, a nationally known magazine writer. He was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
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