Wilhelm Melcher

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Wilhelm Melcher (April 5, 1940 – 2005) was a German violinist best known as the founder of the Melos Quartet.

He was born in Hamburg and studied there and in Rome. He won the 1962 International Chamber Music Competition in Venice and became the concertmaster of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra the next year at the age of 23.

He wanted to have a standing quartet, so he invited the brothers Gerhard and Hermann Voss to join him and the cellist Peter Buck. The quartet was based in Stuttgart because of the ties of Hermann Voss and Peter Buck to that city.

The quartet remained together until Melcher's unexpected death on the eve of a planned farewell tour.