When it came to playing music, Trudi Prelypchan possessed elite talent and timing — skills that made the Victoria native an in-demand concert violinist during her four-decade career.
Prelypchan, who was born Trudean Conrad, died at 74 in July from the combined effects of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. A celebration of life in her honour is set for Christ Church Cathedral this afternoon, which is fitting. She performed to rapturous applause inside the Burdett Avenue building on many occasions, and was married there in 2008.
No matter when, no matter where, she could flat-out play, and did so with precision and commitment, many of her peers said.
“Just saying her name brings a smile to my face,” her longtime friend, former Victoria Symphony violist Jenny MacLeod, wrote in an email to the Times Colonist. “Trudi was everything — warm, witty, compassionate, caring, hilarious, gutsy, articulate, determined [and] wonderfully musical.”
Indeed, her talent was such that Prelypchan joined the Victoria Symphony at 16, one of the youngest musicians ever to do so; within two years she would be ranked among North America’s most promising young classical musicians. Prelypchan performed with orchestras in Canada, the United States and Europe, before eventually returning to the Victoria Symphony in 1973 for the first of several return engagements.
Like Prelypchan, Don Kissinger was once a prodigious violinist with the Victoria Symphony, and spent time alongside Prelypchan when they were both members of the National Youth Orchestra, which opened the door to a career in Europe for his gifted counterpart. Kissinger marvelled at how Prelypchan strived to succeed on the world stage, where others from Victoria had failed.
“There wasn’t ever an expectation that we would get into the big leagues,” Kissinger said. “Trudi, in a way, was a forerunner. She would just not accept that we had to limit ourselves because we were in Victoria.”
In 1979, she moved to Germany and took a position with the James Last Orchestra, one of the most commercially successful acts in history. During her time with the German orchestra, she backed everyone from ABBA to Tom Jones in concert.
Prelypchan returned to Victoria in 1983, where she would stay for the remainder of her life. She has one of the widest-ranging resumés of any Victoria musician in recent memory, having performed in more than 30 countries worldwide. Locally, she worked in various capacities with the Victoria Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria, Palm Court Orchestra, Island Chamber Players and the Galiano Ensemble, among others.
She met her husband, Norman Prelypchan, in 2005. With two children from his previous marriage, Norman didn’t expect to have another meaningful relationship, but Trudi was clearly special, he said. The couple married in 2008.
She was in the early stages of her battle with MS when they began their courtship, but Trudi fought the disease, which attacks the central nervous system, with a quiet, stern commitment, Norman said. It was not unlike how she approached playing her violin. Trudi was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013, and for the final two years of her life was confined to a bed, but her spirit was not diminished, he said.
Trudi studied under many of the top conductors during the 1970s, and eventually became a teacher herself. A longstanding faculty member with the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Prelypchan was among the key individuals who fought against proposed string music program cuts by School District 61 in 2000. The issue was an important one for Trudi, who first played the violin in Grade 4 during strings class at Sir James Douglas Elementary.
When she could no longer play to the level of her previous ability, she donated her French violin — crafted in 1748 and valued at nearly $35,000 — to the University of Victoria.
The couple became avid travellers following her retirement from active performance in 2011. Their final trip, in 2018, took the Prelypchans to the United Kingdom and the birth home of Enigma Variations composer Edward Elgar. Shortly before closing, Trudi asked if she could play a violin which had been mounted on the wall. Her request was granted, and she played the Elgar composition Salut d’Amour, with Norman and a custodian as her audience.
“It was the last time she played the violin,” Norman said. “It meant triumph for her, over everything.”
A celebration of life for Trudi Prelypchan will be held at Christ Church Cathedral, 930 Burdett Ave., today at 1:30 p.m.
The service will be livestreamed at christchurchcathedral.bc.ca.
