It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of David Hopper in January and he will be greatly missed by us all at FFMO.
David grew up in Hove, and has always lived in Brighton & Hove, most recently in West Dene. David had three sisters Jeanette, Josie and Barbara. By way of career, David was a senior civil engineer.
We have known David as an FFMO member for over 20 years, a much valued player in our wonderful guitar section. David also played in quartets and quintets, and in the Brighton Guitar Group.
David enjoyed playing a wide range of guitar music, especially enjoyed the challenge of playing Bach, Villa-Lobos and Brouwer. Carolan’s traditional Irish folk tune Si Bheag, Si Mhor was also a great favourite of David’s, and the orchestra has the honour of playing this lovely piece at the invitation of David’s family at the forthcoming service.
Lucy Regan, a fellow guitarist and friend paid tribute to David. “I was shocked and saddened to hear about David. Our guitar section is small but we have been long serving and none less so than David. I’ve known David for a long time through our mandolin orchestra, a guitar quartet we played in, various guitar weekends (and a week at West Dean) and in Brighton’s annual Springboard Festival as well as guitar trips both here and abroad and, latterly, the Brighton Guitar Group. He was kind and a wonderful guitarist – we will miss him.”
FFMO’s long serving fellow guitarist Adrian Milarski added “I always enjoyed playing with David. He was a great guitarist, a very amiable person, and we always managed to have a laugh!”
Musical Director Lindsay Stoner added her tribute “David had been in the orchestra for many years and took part in every concert and performance he could. He also came along on our first overseas trip, our memorable trip to Holland in 2012 which was a lot of fun and also a wonderful musical experience. David was a very fine musician and a great asset to the orchestra. His kind demeanour, gentle sense of humour and beautiful guitar playing will be truly missed. We will remember him always with great fondness.”
Our chair, Nicki Lewkow succinctly summed up the feelings of the whole orchestra: “He was a quiet man whose guitar spoke eloquently for him. His voice will be greatly missed.“
David will be laid to rest on Thursday 22 February. The service will be at Woodvale Crematorium, Lewes Road, Brighton at 11 am. Getting to Woodvale Crematorium (brighton-hove.gov.uk) Donations will be to the British Heart Foundation.
May he rest in peace.
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