Bob Simans, who has died aged 80, was a gifted violinist, pianist and music teacher; in addition to a distinguished orchestral career under the baton of conductors such as Pierre Monteux, Malcolm Sargent and Karl Anton Rickenbacher, he taught violin to Simon Rattle and accompanied Nicola Benedetti in her early years.
A prodigious talent, Simans was equally adept at the piano, on which he was self-taught, as on violin, and flourished as both conductor and composer.
On one occasion he was prised by Rickenbacher from the violin section of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to deputise for the Romanian concert pianist Radu Lupu during a rehearsal of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1, which he sight...