Violist Shanda Lowery-Sachs has died

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Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) violist Shanda Lowery-Sachs has died, after a long battle with cancer.

Lowery-Sachs was born in Porterville, California, US, and began to play music at the age of four, learning the piano and the violin from her cellist mother. She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, and received a master of music in viola at Rice University, studying with Roberto Diaz, Martha Katz, and Wayne Brooks.

She performed in the Rochester Philharmonic and as the assistant principal of the Virginia Symphony orchestra, before joining the DSO in 2001. In 2005, one performance was made memorable by her boyfriend’s proposal – and her acceptance – in the middle of a concert.

Lowery-Sachs greatly loved her family, music, and tennis.

‘Everyone who knew Shanda felt her strength, warmth, passion, empathy, and humor,’ the DSO released in a statement. ‘She will be greatly missed.’

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