Hugo Rinaldi

1919 - 2015

Hugo R. Rinaldi

December 22, 1919 - December 5, 2015

Noted musician, conductor, educator, Hugo Rinaldi was born in San Francisco to Italian immigrant parents. He grew up in San Rafael, attended St. Raphael School and graduated from San Rafael High School in 1938.

From early childhood he practiced violin seriously, receiving Marin Music Chest Scholarships during his high school years to study with Naoum Blinder, concertmaster of the SF Symphony Orchestra. In his senior year Hugo was chosen concertmaster of the All California Youth Orchestra under Alfred Hertz, conductor of the SF Symphony Orchestra.

During World War II, which intersected his college education, Hugo conducted the United States Army Band for four years.

After receiving his MA Degree from Stanford University in 1949, he became Director of Music for the San Rafael School District, serving as the only music teacher for all the city schools. Gradually building a department of ten full-time music faculty, Hugo and his teachers achieved a highly successful Grades 1-12 training program which included orchestras, choirs, bands, operettas, musical shows, festivals. In 1970 he was given a Steinway & Sons' Award for the most innovative public school music program in the State of California.

Upon returning from a sabbatical year studying conducting at the Boccherini Conservatory in Lucca, Italy, he founded and conducted for several years the San Rafael Chamber Orchestra, composed of professional musician friends. The performances took place in Angelico Hall on the Dominican College campus, where he found Faith Y. France, pianist, who was teaching at the school's conservatory. He engaged her to play for his concerts, which led to their marriage in 1965. With a mutual passion for excellence in music education, they honed a strong loving bond throughout their long marriage.

Dedicated to working with committed high school musicians, Hugo founded the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra in 1955 and the Orchestra Piccola in 1970, nurturing and conducting these orchestras for 35 years. As they reached near-professional performance level, he took the orchestras on award-winning 3-week concert tours:

• To Spoleto, Italy, Gian Carlo Menotti Festival of Two Worlds - 1973;
• To Vienna, Austria, International Youth Music Festival - 1979;
• To Australia, International Youth Music Festival - 1983.

For adventurous concert programming, composer William Schuman presented Hugo the ASCAP award in NY City.

Music was the light of Hugo's life. For 38 years he spent 6 nights weekly as resident conductor-violinist for SF Civic Light Opera performances. More than 100 different musicals were presented during that era. He liked to recall the week in 1972 when composer Leonard Bernstein brought "Candide" to the SFCLO and asked Hugo to conduct while Bernstein sat in the audience listening and making changes in orchestral scoring.

When Proposition 13 perilously impacted music education in California public schools, Hugo took early retirement from the San Rafael School District and became Associate Professor of Music at Dominican University from 1981-1991. He also conducted the Marin Opera throughout its 9-year history, which included the premier of Gordon Getty's Opera, "Plump Jack."

He happily participated in numerous community events, including:

• The Charles Ives Centennial 5-day Festival at Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, which featured pianist John Kirkpatrick of Yale University.
• A weeklong series of "Star Wars" orchestra concerts held in Northern California with composer John Williams and Hugo taking turns conducting performances.

In his retirement, Hugo spent summers 95-96-97 as conductor and professor at the Academia in Attersee, Austria, with opera-oratorio performances taking place in historic venues and cathedrals surrounding Salzburg and Vienna. Lastly he lectured on opera for the Jarvis Conservatory and College of Marin Emeritus Division.

~ A great life, passionately lived ~

Hugo is survived by his wife, Faith Y. France Rinaldi; daughters Teresa Cooper and Nancy Boatright (William); granddaughters Natalie Boatright (Patrick) and Adrianne Cooper Santos (Michael). His stepson W. David France, and son-in-law Gary Joe Cooper, predeceased him.

A celebration of Hugo's life will be held for family and friends on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 2:00 pm at San Domenico School in the Carol Franc Buck Hall of the Arts, located at 1500 Butterfield Road, San Anselmo, California.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Marin Music Chest Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 468, Ross, CA 94957; to the Marin Symphony, 4340 Redwood Highway, Suite 409C, San Rafael, CA 94903; or to the Virtuoso Program Scholarship Fund, c/o Rob DeNunzio, Director, San Domenico School, 1500 Butterfield Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960.