Although he was diagnosed more than a year ago with melanoma, a form of cancer, Kenneth Harper continued to perform with the Colorado Symphony when he could, making his last appearances during holiday concerts in December.
Harper, who served as the orchestra’s assistant principal bassist since 1994, died at his home Saturday. He was 45.
“Losing Ken is unspeakably heartbreaking for all of us,” Jeffrey Kahane, the symphony’s music director, said via e-mail. “He was an exceptionally fine musician whose fierce commitment and profound dedication . . . set an extraordinary example that will endure.”
Claude Sim, the orchestra’s associate concertmaster, said he looked over during a rehearsal Thursday to where Harper would usually be playing and felt the void.
“He was just such a big personality in the orchestra,” Sim said. “Just very boisterous and enthusiastic. He was very much adored by so many of us.”
Sim also performed with Harper as part of Extasis, a tango quartet that appears at the Mercury Cafe on Fridays.
“He was a huge driving force behind the group, mostly because of his arrangements,” Sim said. “He did 90 percent of our arrangements, labor-of-love kind of stuff, and also, of course, he was just a fantastic player — very dedicated to tango.”
The quartet had hoped to release a newly recorded compact disc before his death, but the shipment did not arrive in time. Sim said the album will take on a different meaning with the bassist’s death.
A native of Camden, N.J., Harper earned a bachelor-of-music degree from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., in 1985 and a master-of-music degree from Rice University in Houston in 1988.
Before joining the CSO, he performed with the Houston Ballet Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall.
Harper is survived by his wife, Amy Harr, and a son, Bennett, 5.
A celebration of the bassist’s life, with a performance of music he selected for the event, will be at 4 p.m. March 23 in Boettcher Concert Hall.
The family requests memorials be sent to Shepherd School of Music at Rice University for the Kenneth Harper Scholarship; the Melanoma Research Foundation in Hillsborough, N.J.; or the Colorado Symphony.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
