The German violinist Werner Scholz has died at the age of 86. A concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Scholz was a leading pedagogue whose students won many prizes in international competitions and went on to become concertmasters and violin professors.

Born in Dresden in 1926, Scholz studied with Adrian Rappoldi and Gustav Havemann, a pupil of Joachim. From 1948 to 1951 he was concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic. Moving to Berlin, in 1956 he became first concertmaster of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, a position that he held until 1974. In 1961 he was appointed violin professor at Berlin's Hanns Eisler Academy of Music.

Scholz's many students included Antje Weithaas, Kathinka Rebling, Eberhard Feltz, David Yonan and Rachel Barton Pine.

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