Ruth Elizabeth Tomfohrde

Ruth Elizabeth Robbins Tomfohrde, born the 2nd of February 1922 in Colton, California, passed away peacefully on Monday, the 28th of March 2016 at the age of 94 in The Plaza at The Buckingham in Houston, Texas.

A lifelong musician whose gifts first appeared at the age of 4, when she astonished her parents by playing Singin' in the Rain by ear on the piano, Ruth Tomfohrde (as she was known professionally) had a varied and distinguished performing and teaching career: as soloist in recitals and with orchestra; collaborator with singers, instrumentalists and chamber groups; and as a transformative teacher whose students went on to successful careers as performers and pedagogues. Her marriage to Rice University graduate John Henry Tomfohrde, Jr. in Houston on the 14th of April 1950, was to be a dynamic and loving partnership that would thrive for over 60 years until his passing in 2011. Chemical engineer and dedicated page-turner, John took evident pride in his wife's musical artistry and her impact as a teacher during 32 years on the piano faculty of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and happily gave precedence to her career when he retired from Shell Oil Company.

Born in California on the 2nd of February 1922 as the middle child of three, Betty Ruth (as she was known to family and friends) vividly recalled the catastrophic Long Beach earthquake of 1933, which destroyed her father's wholesale warehouse at the height of the Great Depression. The family's move to Houston the following year proved a new start not only for her father's business but also for the precocious youngster's piano playing. Introduced to Ruth Burr - a respected local piano teacher who had studied in Vienna - a petulant Betty Ruth soon found her faulty technique being rebuilt from the ground up and her easy facility for playing by ear countered with a focus on close musical analysis and technical discipline.

The hard work was to pay off. Traveling to New York City with Ruth Burr in 1941, after two years at Rice University, Betty Ruth competed among 99 applicants for only 19 Piano Fellowships at the elite Juilliard Graduate School. She was awarded a full Fellowship and studied with Ernest Hutcheson. After her first year at Juilliard, she won a competition to perform the first movement of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Houston Symphony. A rave review in the Houston Post for her professional concerto debut led to further engagements with the Houston Symphony, playing Tchaikovsky, Dohnányi and Beethoven.

In 1945 – as World War II was coming to an end - she toured France and Germany with the Concert Division of the USO together with five of her fellow Juilliard students – a traveling group of piano, violin, cello, flute, baritone and soprano. Hardly the lineup for entertaining the troops today!

On graduation, she returned to Houston, where she began working for Municipal Concerts, performing piano recitals in small communities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma and touring with violinist (and fellow Juilliard graduate) Fredell Lack, including a memorable, if challenging, trip to the Dakotas and Wyoming in the depths of snowy winter. Returning to Europe during the Summer of 1948, she went to Fontainebleau, outside Paris, to study piano with world-renowned Robert Casadesus and music analysis and theory with the legendary Nadia Boulanger.

She married John Henry Tomfohrde, Jr. in 1950, following a courtship pursued in New York during his time in the Navy, and they had two daughters, Janis and Anne. John and the family were transferred by Shell from Houston to New York to The Netherlands to Washington State to the St. Louis area before returning to Houston in 1974. In these various locations, Betty Ruth performed publicly and taught occasionally. Highlights included standing in for Glenn Gould at a Gala chamber music concert in Seattle, touring and recording with baritone Dale Moore, and playing the Grieg concerto with the St Louis Philharmonic.

On returning to Houston and with both daughters by then in their twenties, she joined the piano faculty at the University of Houston School of Music (later to become the Moores School of Music) and taught in tandem with Abbey Simon. Progressing to full Professor of Piano, she helped many students with the rigorous technical approach that Ruth Burr had bequeathed to her. During her 32 years on the faculty, she performed and recorded regularly, notably with cellist Anthony Elliott at Weill Hall (Carnegie Hall) in New York; with violist Lawrence Wheeler at Alice Tully Hall in New York and at Wigmore Hall in London; and with fellow pianist Timothy Hester in a two-piano work specially written for them.

Students taught by Ruth Tomfohrde came from a wide range of countries, including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Germany, The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Mexico, as well as many areas of the United States. Among her many successful pupils are Richard Dowling, who won the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) National Prize in 1985 and has enjoyed an active career as performer; Elyane Laussade, who won many competitions and now lives and performs in Melbourne, Australia; Liu Ning, who returned to his native China to open eleven piano schools with 3,000 students; Hsia-Jung Chang, whose recordings range from Chopin and Debussy to her own "21st Century Improvisations"; Dr. Christopher Childers, whose Piano Studio in Pearland has produced many award-winning students; Barbara Berner, Artistic Director of The St. Louis Children's Choirs; Richard Bado, the Director of Opera Studies at Rice University, Chorus Master for the Houston Grand Opera, and an accomplished accompanist and conductor on the world stage; John Sharpley, who teaches in Singapore and is also a composer; and Houston-born Roger Wright, an international concert pianist and prizewinner who debuted with the Houston Symphony at the age of 18 and won the U.S. National Scrabble Championship in 2004.

On retiring from the Moores School and well into her 90s, Betty Ruth continued to receive a steady stream of visits from grateful students, played hymns for her church's Sunday School, improvised popular tunes by ear at birthday celebrations at The Buckingham senior living community and, preserving family tradition, played sonatas with her violinist daughter Janis.

Betty Ruth will be remembered as a disciplined, expressive musician who shared her gifts with many; as a devoted friend and colleague; and as a mother who dearly loved her family and they her. The family is grateful for the countless demonstrations of affection Betty Ruth received from relatives, students, and friends; for the love shown her by staff and fellow residents of The Buckingham; and for the beautiful care she was given by her dedicated caregivers.

She is survived by her two daughters -- Janis Susskind Fell, who lives in London, England, and Anne Munitz and husband Barry, who live in Santa Monica, California – and by her nieces Cindy Kuenneke, Elizabeth Williamson, and Brooke Robbins and their families.

A memorial service will be held at eleven o'clock in the morning on Friday, the 29th of April, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

Immediately following the service, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Grand Foyer.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Betty Ruth's name be directed to the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, 120 School of Music Building, Houston, TX, 77204-4017 or to a charity of one's choice.