Larry Grika, music teacher and retired first violinist and union leader for the Philadelphia Orchestra, has died at 90

Larry Grika, 90, of Cherry Hill, retired celebrated first violinist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, esteemed music teacher, mentor to many, and players union leader, died Tuesday, Aug. 8, of kidney disease at his home.

Mr. Grika grew up as a violin prodigy in Chicago. He joined the Philadelphia Orchestra when he was 32, sat in the first violin section, and served as an inspirational colleague for most of the next five decades.

Music, his family said, was part of his very being, and today’s Philadelphia Orchestra features the Larry A. Grika Chair. “To us,” Mr. Grika told the Daily News in 2002, “a bow is like a singer’s breath.”

Mr. Grika left the Cincinnati Symphony for Philadelphia in 1964, retired from full-time playing in 2005, and finally stopped sitting in as a substitute when he was 80 in 2012. He toured China during the orchestra’s historic visits in 1973 and 1993, and oversaw conductor Eugene Ormandy’s 80th birthday celebration in 1979 and the 2005 gala that marked the return of conductor Riccardo Muti to Philadelphia.

“No one radiated more joy, nor told funnier stories, than Larry,” a former orchestra colleague said in an online tribute. “He indeed was one of a kind.”

Mr. Grika played for many orchestras over his long career, including the Lyric Opera Orchestra in Chicago and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra in New Mexico. He performed at festivals in Aspen and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and later joined the Amerita String Ensemble, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, and Music Society of Southern New Jersey.

He won the 1953 Oliver Ditson Award for violins and said in a 2005 profile he wrote: “My life is filled with rich memories of tremendously talented musicians and friends, exhilarating performances, and world travel.”

Mr. Grika taught hundreds of violin students privately and at Antioch College in Ohio, and later at Temple University, Bryn Mawr College, and Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. He led master classes for the first violin section of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and instructed players at the Philadelphia International Music Camp and Festival.

His students noted his high expectations, patience, and constant encouragement, and several of them played softly at his bedside after he fell seriously ill. “He was like a magnet in the room,” said his daughter Lauren Eyer. “Everybody went toward him.”

He worked with innovative students such as Caryn Lin, Tamara deMent, and Mildred Zitt, and deMent told Len Lear of the Chestnut Hill Local in 2019: “My very wise violin teacher, Larry Grika, told me not to compare myself with others. He said that you can never tell in which direction the branches of a tree will grow. I found that particular aphorism very comforting.”

Mr. Grika sat on the orchestra’s board of directors and several important committees. He was a fiery union leader who led public demonstrations during contract talks with orchestra management in 1993 and 1996. He tore up a written proposal by management in front of reporters after one meeting in 1996 and told The Inquirer: “We are not anti-management. We are anti-mismanagement.”

Former colleague Herbert Light said: “Larry Grika’s contributions to bettering the lives of Philadelphia Orchestra members are legendary and are still relevant today.”

Arnold Larry Grika was born Oct. 14, 1932, in Chicago. His musical parents wanted their three children to play instruments, and they liked the violin best. So Mr. Grika, the oldest, started playing the violin at 5.

He was obviously talented and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University. He was drafted and played in the Army band and orchestra at Fort Myers in Virginia, and studied musicology at Catholic University.

He met Pearl Millman in Philadelphia through a mutual friend, and they married in 1966, and had son Marc, and daughters Lauren and Debbie. They lived at first in Philadelphia and moved to Cherry Hill in 1969.

Mr. Grika enjoyed traveling, and he and his wife went on safari in Tanzania when he was 80. They visited Europe often, and he took his children on several tours with the orchestra.

He was a foodie who often arranged his activities around lunch or dinner. He played baseball in the streets of Chicago as a boy and followed the Phillies, Eagles, and 76ers in Philadelphia.

He doted on his children but always switched off their rock and roll for his classical music and show tunes. He played chess with and gave good advice to his eight grandchildren.

“He was larger than life,” his daughter Debbie Driessen-Grika said. “If you met him, you would remember him.” His son, Marc, said: “He was always my role model.”

In addition to his wife, children, and grandchildren, Mr. Grika is survived by a brother, a sister, and other relatives.

Services were Aug. 10.

Donations in his name may be made to the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1 South Broad St., 14th Floor, Philadelphia Pa. 19107.