Pancreatic cancer claims Geoff Nuttall.

Geoff Nuttall co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet in 1989, was a faculty member of Stanford University’s department of music and director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina.

He was born in Texas, moved to London, Ont., at the age of eight, studied violin at the Banff Centre, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto.

Nuttall and his quartet colleagues received two Grammy nominations and won a Juno Award in 1999.

Geoff Nuttall died yesterday of pancreatic cancer in California, where he was based.

He was 56.