Violinist Kristin Smedvig dies

SEATTLE – Kristin Aurora Smedvig, a violin instructor, soloist and member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for 33 years, is dead at 83.

Smedvig died at home Thursday two years after she was found to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, friends and relatives said.

Her husband of 56 years, Egil Smedvig, is a music teacher, composer and arranger, and their son, Rolf Smedvig of New York, became principal trumpeter of the Boston Symphony at age 20 and later founded the Empire Brass Quintet.

Born in San Francisco to immigrants from Iceland, she grew up in Seattle, studied at the University of Washington and Mills College, and taught in the Seattle and Bremerton public schools before joining the Seattle Symphony.

She also gave private lessons on the violin and, after retiring from the orchestra, played in chamber groups until the onset of ALS.

Other survivors include daughters Jodene Smedvig of Seattle and Siri Smedvig of Concord, Mass.