In memoriam: DAVID KAMHI (Sarajevo, October 8, 1936 - March 12, 2021)

With deep regret, the Academy of Music of the University of Sarajevo informs colleagues, friends and the general public that on March 12, 2021, in Sarajevo, at the age of 85, the respected violinist and violin professor David Kamhi passed away.

David Kamhi was born on October 8, 1936, in Sarajevo. After finishing primary and secondary music school, and the First Gymnasium in Sarajevo, he completed his graduate (1962) and postgraduate studies in violin (1964) at the Academy of Music of the University of Sarajevo. In the period from 1965 to 1967, he studied at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory at the David Oistrakh’s Violin Department in the class of Olga Kaverzneva, and at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome with Pina Carmirelli (1970, 1973). From 1955, he was employed as a violin teacher at the High School of Music in Sarajevo. His engagement at the Sarajevo’s Academy of Music began in 1962, and since then he has passed all teaching and artistic positions in the field of Violin and Methodology of Violin Teaching, from teaching assistant (1962), assistant professor (1971), associate professor (1977), to full professor (1984), in which he retired in 2006. In the absence of teaching staff, he was entrusted with teaching Viola and Chamber Music as well, which made an important contribution to the survival and continuity of the viola class in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period from 1965 to 2003, he served several times as the head of the Department of String Instruments. It is especially important to emphasize his commitment to continue the work of the Department during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992-1995. Since 2016, he has actively participated in the work of the Council for Culture and Arts at the University of Sarajevo.

David Kamhi’s pedagogical activity has produced generations of violinists, chamber musicians and violin pedagogues. Extremely dedicated to the promotion and improvement of violin pedagogy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was the organizer and invited lecturer of a series of lectures and seminars for violin teachers. As a reproductive artist, he has given numerous recitals in the country and abroad, as well as concerts with the Sarajevo Philharmonic, accompanied by positive reviews.

David Kamhi's pedagogical and artistic activity is complemented by his social activity. He was the President of the Association of Music Artists of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period from 1993 to 1995, he was a member of the Council of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Foreign Affairs, and from 1995 to 1996 he was the cultural attaché at the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Madrid.

He was a tireless and dedicated scholar and promoter of the culture and tradition of Bosnian Jews in the capacity of Vice President of the Cultural, Educational and Humanitarian Society La Benevolencija, Vice President of the Jewish Community in Sarajevo, President of the Sarajevo Jewish Community Culture Commission, and in the period from 1992 to 2016, prelate of the Sarajevo Ashkenazi Synagogue.

A memorial for Professor David Kamhi will be held on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at 11:30 at the Academy of Music of the University of Sarajevo. Due to the extremely complex epidemiological situation in Sarajevo Canton, the event will be closed to the public. A recording of the commemorative gathering will be published on the website of the Academy of Music of the University of Sarajevo in the coming days. The funeral of Professor David Kamhi will be performed on the same day, March 16, 2021, at 2:30 pm at the Bare Cemetery.