Everett “Vic” Firth, longtime timpanist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, teacher at the New England Conservatory of Music, and founder of the Vic Firth drumstick company, died on July 26, 2015 at age 85.

Born June 2, 1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts, and raised in Maine, Firth’s father was a successful trumpet and cornet player who started young Vic on the instrument when he was only four. He soon began to study arranging, with additional lessons on trombone, clarinet, piano, and percussion. By the time he was in high school, he had gravitated full-time to percussion, studying first with Robert Ramsdell and later with George Lawrence Stone, Salvy Cavicchio, and Larry White. By the age of sixteen he was actively pursuing a career as the leader of his own 18-piece big band, playing vibes and drumset throughout the New England area.

Upon graduating from high school, Firth attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Roman Szulc, then the timpanist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Firth also made biweekly trips to Juilliard in order to study with Saul Goodman. When Szulc retired from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and auditions were held for the position, Firth was selected for the job. At age twenty-one, Firth was the youngest member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra, the average age in 1952 being about fifty-five. Not yet finished with his Bachelor’s Degree from the Conservatory, he had to make special arrangements in order to complete his course work and degree.

Firth’s teaching career at the New England Conservatory began before he had graduated, first in the preparatory department, then as head of the percussion department. He guided numerous gifted students through their education, not only at the conservatory, but also at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, summer home of the BSO. Percussion students who have studied with Firth hold key positions throughout the world.

Unsatisfied with the sticks available during his early years, Firth, like many percussionists, began making his own. He began with timpani mallets, making round heads with no seams. As his students began using his sticks and dealers began asking for them, he made the decision to expand the manufacturing process. His driving principle was quality, with a guarantee that each pair would be straight and matched in pitch. What began in 1960 as a basement operation out of his home expanded into a corporation with two plants, a main office and over 150 employees to handle the manufacture and worldwide sales of his sticks. Vic Firth is credited with inventing or standardizing many of the key manufacturing processes used today in the drumstick world, including centerless grinding, pitch-pairing, weight-sorting, injection molding, and the introduction of environmentally conscious stick sleeves that keep sticks paired together.

Although most young percussionists are familiar with the name Firth because of his sticks and mallets, many promising students first encounter Firth’s musical substance through his numerous compositions and etudes. “Encore in Jazz” is a staple of the percussion ensemble repertoire, and his The Solo Timpanist etude book has set the standard for audition material at the all-state or college-entry level. Few students seriously study timpani without sweating over etudes from this book.

As a performer, Firth performed with such legendary conductors and musicians as Leonard Bernstein, Serge Koussevitsky, Leopold Stokowski, Jascha Heifetz and Vladimir Horowitz. “Vic is quite simply the consummate artist,” said former Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa. “I believe he is the single greatest percussionist anywhere in the world.”

In 1992, Firth received an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory. Firth was very active in the Percussive Arts Society, serving on both the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. In 1995 he was elected to the PAS Hall of Fame.

Perhaps no one summarizes Firth’s esteem in the percussion community better than jazz drummer Peter Erskine. “I have had the great pleasure of knowing Vic personally for twenty-five years,” said Peter Erskine, “and thanks to television and recordings, I have known his great music-making as timpanist of the Boston Symphony for even longer. And I have used his sticks since high school. Vic is the consummate musician, teacher and business person. No matter whose drumstick or mallet you use, we must all be grateful to Vic Firth for raising the level of stick and mallet design and production. Simply put, I wouldn’t want to make any of my music without his sticks, and I cherish the friendship of the man and his family.”

View a clip from Vic Firth’s 2003 NAMM Oral History interview.

Read Vic Firth’s PAS Hall of Fame profile here.