A Tree grew at Marlboro. And so did everyone around him.

Michael Tree, of course, was violist of the landmark Guarneri Quartet that did so much to foster a love of chamber music in generations of musicians and audiences. Tree died on March 31 at the age of 84. He was preceded in death by Guarneri founding cellist David Soyer in 2010.

All the Guarneri personnel – including violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley – have ties to the Marlboro Music School and Festival. Indeed, the quartet got its start at Marlboro in 1964. The four young men (all, except Soyer, in their early 20s) had played together at the festival in various permutations for two summers, when they were convinced by Rudolf Serkin and Alexander Schneider to form a more permanent union. Soyer retired from the ensemble in 2001. He was replaced by pupil-made-good Peter Wiley, formerly of the Beaux Arts Trio. Wiley has been active at Marlboro since the 1970s.

The quartet officially disbanded in 2009, after a 45 year run. Even so, its members would occasionally reunite to play with various ad hoc ensembles.

Unfortunately the Guarneri Marlboro concerts were not formally recorded. The Marlboro recording studio was not set up until 1965. Some recordings surfaced many years later, but these have not been vetted for broadcast. How fascinating it would have been to hear the Guarneri in Hindemith’s String Quartet No. 3! Happily, most of the quartet’s early repertoire was later documented on commercial releases.

What made this Tree especially great is that he nurtured the countless seedlings around him. He shared his invaluable insights and experience as a senior artist at Marlboro for 18 seasons. We’ll celebrate his legacy with performances of works by two very different composers. Tree will lend his violistic talents to Beethoven’s Serenade in D major, Op. 25, with flutist Christine Nield and violinist Young Uck Kim, at the 1980 Marlboro Music Festival, and Frank Bridge’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, with violinists Timothy Fain and Tien Hsin Cindy Wu and cellist Peter Myers, recorded in 2009.

Michael Tree remembers his roots even as he branches out, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page