Violist and music professor who co-founded the Lydian Quartet
Viola player Mary Ruth Ray, a founding member of the
Boston-based Lydian Quartet, died on 29 January after a battle with
cancer. She was 56. For more than 30 years she taught at Brandeis
University, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, and also performed as
a soloist and member of the Emmanuel Music chamber ensemble in
Boston.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Ray began studying the viola st the
age of ten. She graduated from SUNY in New York, along with
violinist Judith Eissenberg. The two co-founded the Lydian Quartet
in 1980, the same year Ray joined the Brandeis music faculty. She
and Eissenberg were the only members to continue playing with the
quartet, which received the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1984,
toured Europe and Russia, and made more than 30 recordings
together.
As member of Emmanuel Music, Ray performed the complete cycle of
more than 200 Bach cantatas as well as chamber music by Debussy,
Brahms, Schubert and Schoenberg. She also performed with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, Apple Hill Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva
and Juneau Jazz and Classics.
Known at Brandeis by the nickname ‘UV’, Ray taught viola and
chamber music, including a course on ‘Inside the Piece: Chamber
Music from the Player's Perspective’. She was made chair of the
music department in 2005.
Photo: Michael Lovett/Brandeis University
No comments yet