The beloved cellist Jules Eskin has died. Eskin was principal cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 53 years. Eskin was living history. His association with the orchestra extended back to the days of Serge Koussevitzky.

Born in Philadelphia in 1931, Eskin was picked up by the Dallas Symphony at the age of 16, where he performed under the direction of Antal Dorati. He studied with Janos Starker in Dallas, then with Gregor Piatigorsky and Leonard Rose at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1948, he was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in the TMC Orchestra under Koussevitzky. He then spent three years as principal cello of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and seven years with the New York City Opera. In addition, he participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and played in the Casals Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico. He joined the BSO as principal cello in 1964, when Erich Leinsdorf was music director.

Eskin died yesterday at his Brookline home. The cause of death was cancer. Earlier, he had withdrawn from the Boston Symphony for a season to undergo cancer treatments in 1981. He is survived by his wife, BSO violinist Aza Raykhtsaum. The couple celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in January. Eskin announced his retirement from the orchestra only last month. He was 85 years-old.

We’ll honor him with some of the recordings he made with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, of which he was a founding member, this afternoon from 4 to 7:00 EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.