James Alexander Arkatov

1920 - 2019

July 17, 1920 - May 11, 2019 Jim Arkatov, 98, musician, photographer and businessman, passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, on May 11. Born in Odessa, Russia, Jim emigrated with his parents Tina and Alexander, and sisters Gloria and Victoria, to San Francisco in 1925. It was there that he emerged as a child prodigy cellist and discovered his lifelong love for playing chamber music--often with his boyhood friend, violinist Isaac Stern. At age 18, he was invited to join the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner, and later served as principal cellist for the Indianapolis and San Francisco symphonies. Re-settling in Los Angeles, he worked as a studio musician and as principal cellist of the NBC Orchestra, producing albums under the prestigious RCA Victor label. Jim also received accolades for his concerto performances and the cello compositions he premiered in the "Evening on the Roof" concert series.

Starting in the mid 1950s and continuing into the 1990s, Jim channeled his business interests into his work for Pacific Life as a CLU, becoming one of their top producers nationwide. In 1968, he founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and tapped Neville Marriner as its first musical director, performing as a soloist and serving as its principal cellist. Jim took great pride in LACO's emergence as a world-class orchestra, and was honored for his contributions last year by LACO as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, Jim devoted much of his energy to photography, a lifelong passion he inherited from his father, a celebrated Russian filmmaker.

With the same enterprising zeal he'd brought to business, and expanding upon the earlier black-and-white images he captured of his fellow musicians up-close in rehearsal and performance, Jim audiotaped and photographed hundreds of the world's most important musicians and visual artists. That work culminated in the publication of two acclaimed photographic portrait books, "Masters of Music" and "Artists: The Creative Personality." In addition to the thousands of photos in his archived collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, UCLA's Ethnomusicology and Special Collections Libraries, and the USC Libraries, he received several exhibits of his work-including those at the Skirball Cultural Center, the Hammer Museum and Heritage Gallery. Jim has permanent collections on view at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, UCLA Medical Center, and the Colburn School.

Devoted to his family, he's survived by his wife of 63 years, UCLA emerita piano faculty member and documentary filmmaker Salome Ramras Arkatov, their children Janice and Alan, daughter-in-law Mary Leslie, son-in-law Barry McGrath, grandsons Daniel, Jacob and Michael; niece Katherine Graves, her husband John and their family; and nephew Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, his wife Donna and their family. A memorial celebration of Jim's life will be hosted by LACO on September 29th at Royce Hall.