STANLEY DRUCKER (Clarinet ’45), who was a member of the New York Philharmonic for 60 years, passed away on December 19 at age 93. Regarded as the dean of American orchestral clarinetists, Mr. Drucker joined the New York Philharmonic in 1948 at age 19 where he played more than 10,000 performances in 60 countries during his 60-year tenure with the orchestra. In 1960 he was appointed principal clarinet by Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41). His career highlights include 191 solo appearances, 64 performances of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, the first performances of the clarinet concertos by William Bolcom and John Corigliano, and more than a dozen acclaimed recordings. Read more.

NED ROREM (Composition ’44) died November 18 in New York City. He was 99. A faculty member from 1980 to 2001, Mr. Rorem was a prolific author and a composer of hundreds of art songs, along with numerous orchestral and chamber works. In 1993, André Previn, Gary Graffman, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere in Philadelphia of Mr. Rorem’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (for left hand). The work was dedicated to Mr. Graffman, whose subsequent performance at Carnegie Hall was described by the New York Times as “electrifying.” Read more.

LAILA STORCH (Oboe ’45), pioneering oboist, author, teacher, baker, and linguist, passed away on December 2 at age 101. She was the first female oboist to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with internationally renowned oboist Marcel Tabuteau. A trailblazing musician, Professor Storch served as principal oboe of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1948–55) and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg (1955–57) and played with the National Symphony, Kansas City Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and American Wind Ensemble of Vienna. Read more.

ANTHONY CHECCHIA (Bassoon ’51), the former administrative director to director Rudolf Serkin at Curtis, an influential cultural leader, and concert impresario, died at his home in Rittenhouse Square on September 7. He was 94. The former general manager of Marlboro Music School and Festival, Mr. Checchia was the founder of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (PCMS) and artistic director of the organization for its first 28 years, noted for his vital role in helping to identify, develop, and nurture generations of leading musicians worldwide.

Born in Philadelphia in 1930, Mr. Checchia studied at Curtis from 1950 to 1951. His early career as a bassoonist included engagements with the Baltimore Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra, and other ensembles, while his passion for nurturing young talent began as the music director of Young Audiences in Philadelphia, presenting such artists as a young Richard Goode (Piano ’64). Mr. Checchia first attended the Marlboro Music Festival in 1956, and two years later, Rudolf Serkin, with whom he had worked at Curtis, asked Mr. Checchia to take on the festival’s administrative leadership. During his administration which, from 1960 onward, he shared with his colleague Frank Salomon, he worked tirelessly to advance its mission and ideals, engaging eminent resident artists ranging from Pablo Casals and Leon Fleisher to members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets. Following Serkin’s death in 1991, Mr. Checchia and Mr. Salomon played a crucial role in steering Marlboro as it changed artistic leadership.

In 1986, Mr. Checchia created the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and served as its founding artistic director. Over the years, Mr. Checchia and his colleague, Philip Maneval, transformed PCMS’s program from a series of seven concerts to an organization respected worldwide, presenting an annual season of some 65 performances and 50 educational programs. Mr. Checchia received a lifetime award from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and an honorary doctorate from Curtis in 2001. He is survived by his wife, Benita Valente (Voice ’60), son Pete, and a large extended family.

BRUCE EICHER (Organ ‘58), who for nearly six decades was the organist and music director of Grace United Methodist Church in Baltimore, died on June 28 at age 90. The cause was congestive heart failure. Mr. Eicher was on faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and maintained an active solo career. A native of Wayland, Iowa, he studied at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, before transferring to Curtis in 1952, where he studied under Alexander McCurdy. In 1954, during his studies, he was drafted into the Army, but later returned to Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958. He secured the post at Grace that autumn, and soon began to expand the church’s music activities, with choirs for children and adults, a Sunday afternoon concert series, and 15 annual French organ marathons. Mr. Eicher later earned a master’s degree at Peabody, having taught music theory there since 1969. He retired from Grace in 2013. He is survived by his husband, two children, and extended family.

DOROTHY KREBILL KARAYANIS (Voice ’54), a mezzo-soprano who was active in the U.S. and Europe during the 1960s and ’70s, died on August 3, in Santa Fe, N.M., at age 94. Born in 1930 to a Mennonite family in Lee County, Iowa, Ms. Karayanis attended the State University of Iowa, where she majored in voice and piano, followed by Curtis, where she received her graduate diploma in vocal studies and met her husband, Plato Karayanis (Voice ’56), the future general director of the Dallas Opera. As Dorothy Krebill, she performed in the original Broadway productions of The Saint of Bleecker Street by Gian Carlo Menotti (Composition ’33) and Candide by Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41) and spent eight years in Germany and Switzerland with her husband singing in regional opera companies in Europe, before touring with the Metropolitan Opera National Company starting in 1965. Throughout her career, she made appearances with numerous opera companies, performing roles with Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Philadelphia Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and San Diego Opera, as well as the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. She retired from singing in 1977 but continued to serve the opera field alongside Mr. Karayanis, who became the Dallas Opera’s general director that same year. Off stage, Ms. Karayanis served as an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Dallas and pursued her interests in calligraphy and bookbinding. She is survived by many nieces and nephews and their families.

CARLOS VILLA (Violin ’58), renowned Colombian violinist, passed away on June 6 at age 84. Upon graduation from Curtis, at the invitation of a Swiss concert manager, he was invited to travel to Zurich and take private lessons with Yehudi Menuhin. In the late 1960s, Otto Klemperer appointed him concertmaster of London’s New Philharmonia Orchestra, and in 1973, he was appointed conductor-concertmaster of Saltzburg’s Camerata Academica in Austria. Mr. Villa then became artistic director and conductor of Bogota’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Colombia and visiting professor of violin and chamber music at the National Conservatory in 1980. Beginning in 1978, he moved to New York City and became a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Westchester Philharmonic, and the American Composer’s Orchestra. Read more.

ROGER MARTIN JANSSEN (Trombone ’65), a United States Army veteran and trombonist, died at his home in Peoria, Ill. on May 2 at age 80. Born in Peoria in 1943, Mr. Janssen embarked on a busy career after graduating from Curtis, performing on a tour with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and playing in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra during its 1965–66 season. A trombonist in the Fifth Army Band in the late ’60s, he went on to freelance with the Chicago, Cincinnati, Winnipeg, and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras. Upon his retirement, he returned to Peoria where he was principal trombonist in the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and Peoria Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Janssen enjoyed traveling, whether by road or by rail, and he took great pride in his train lantern collection that he displayed at the Heart of Illinois Fair. A member of the Lincoln and Continental Owner’s Club, he won several awards for his Lincoln automobiles. He enjoyed working on his cars, watching Indy car races, and eating cherry pie. Mr. Janssen is survived by his wife, brother, nieces, and nephews.

FRANK LEONE (Composition and Piano ’63), a multifaceted musician who rose to the heights of Las Vegas’s entertainment industry, died on September 23 at age 83. The cause was multiple myeloma. A Philadelphia native, Mr. Leone studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music before entering Curtis at age 19, where he studied composition with Vittorio Giannini and Nicolas Flagello, and piano with Vladimir Sokoloff (Accompanying ’38). After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Mr. Leone moved to Las Vegas where he built a six-decade career as a music director, conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger. He was a pianist at the Las Vegas Hilton and Caesars Palace, accompanying such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Red Skelton, Carol Channing, Paul Anka, Ike and Tina Turner, B.B. King, and Elvis Presley (with whom he toured and played Hammond organ). Mr. Leone’s television and recording credits were no less star-studded and included performances with Eartha Kitt, Dionne Warwick, Raquel Welch, and Tony Orlando. He served on the board of the Musicians Union of Las Vegas (Local 369) from 1986–1999, becoming its president from 2000–2015. Colleagues described him as a longstanding advocate of musicians’ rights and fair business practices. He was inducted into the Nevada Musicians Hall of Fame in 2019. Mr. Leone is survived by his extended family including his children Anthony and Marianna Dobo.

JUDE MOLLENHAUER (Harp ’62), whose career as a harpist spanned orchestras in Philadelphia, Iceland, and Columbus, Ohio, died in Vienna, Va. on January 19. She was 85. Born in 1939, Ms. Mollenhauer studied piano and harp in her native Quincy, Ill. During summers in high school, she traveled to Camden, Maine, to take lessons with Carlos Salzedo. At his encouragement, she successfully auditioned for the Angelaires, a professional harp quintet that toured extensively and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and other TV programs. Her studies with Salzedo continued at Curtis, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. Upon graduation, she joined the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and moved with her then-one-year-old daughter, also named Jude, to Reykjavik.

Returning to the U.S., Ms. Mollenhauer held principal harp positions with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, and Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia before moving to Ohio, where she won the same role with the Columbus Symphony, and remained there for 32 years, until her retirement in 2018. She appeared as a featured soloist with many orchestras and served on the faculties of several schools, including Otterbein University and Capital University, both in Ohio. In 2011, Ms. Mollenhauer married Rich Duesterhaus after the two reconnected at a fiftieth high school reunion. She is survived by Mr. Duesterhaus, her two daughters from a previous marriage, and an extended family.

VINCENT W. BARBEE (Horn ’77) ), a horn player and member of the National Ballet of Canada for 40 years, died on July 28. He was 71 years old. Mr. Barbee was born on May 19, 1952, in Raleigh, N.C. and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts before attending Curtis. After graduating in 1977, Canada’s National Ballet hired him for a national tour, which led to a permanent position. He moved to Toronto, where he was also active as a freelancer. Described by his colleagues as kind and ready with a joke, he enjoyed dining out, cycling, and hiking. Mr. Barbee is survived by his brother, sister-in-law, and extended family.

DEBORAH FLEISHER (Harp ’76), a Miami concert harpist whose six-decade career spanned classical, popular music, and Broadway, died on September 29. She was 70 years old. A third-generation musician from a remarkable musical family, Ms. Fleisher was the eldest of five children of famed pianist Leon Fleisher. Her grandfather was Louis Druzinsky, principal second violin with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and her uncle, Edward Druzinsky, was a principal harpist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Fleisher attended Curtis before going on to earn an artist’s diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Over the course of her career Ms. Fleisher held principal positions with the Baltimore Opera, Delaware Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Maryland Lyric Opera, and the Miami City Ballet. Outside of classical music, she accompanied an extraordinary range of singers including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, Renée Fleming, and Joni Mitchell. She performed with touring Broadway productions of The King and I (with Yul Brynner), Hello Dolly (with Carol Channing), Phantom of the Opera, A Chorus Line, and My Fair Lady. The Fleisher family performed together on several occasions, notably premiering a Concerto for Four Harps and Orchestra, written for the family by another family member, composer Nicholas Jacobson, with Leon Fleisher conducting the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Fleisher is survived by her daughter Lena, her mother, siblings, and nephew.

EUGENE SÂRBU (Violin ’73), a Romanian violinist who studied with Ivan Galamian at Curtis and won a series of major competitions in the 1970s, died on July 21 after a lengthy illness. He was 73. Born in Pietrari, Romania, in 1950, Mr. Sârbu began his violin studies with his father before moving to Bucharest, Paris, and eventually, Philadelphia, where he came to study with Galamian at Curtis. He continued his studies with Galamian at the Juilliard School before moving in 1976 to London, where he studied with Nathan Milstein and Yfrah Neaman. Mr. Sârbu began to earn a living on the violin competition circuit, winning top prizes at several contests, including the Carl Flesch and Paganini competitions in 1978, and third prize at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in 1975. During this period, he also developed a passion for old instruments and auctions. He purchased his first major Cremonese violin, a 1756 Tommaso Balestrieri, before upgrading to a Stradivari made in 1729.

Mr. Sârbu performed several times under the auspices of the BBC, and in 1977, gave the premiere of Rautavaara’s Violin Concerto, which was dedicated to him. He also took up conducting and created the European Masters Orchestra, which he led at London’s Royal Festival Hall. In 1981, Mr. Sârbu recorded the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Ole Schmidt for EMI. “Eugene had a silvery, shimmering sound, and was most definitely a Strad player,” Curtis faculty member Eric Wen writes in an appreciation on Tarisio.com. “His larger-than-life personality could sometimes appear almost theatrical. And before a live audience he had that indefinable charisma.”

DAVID NIWA (Violin ’87), a former assistant concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and a fixture on the Columbus, Ohio music scene, died on September 1. He was 58 and had been battling a rare form of appendix cancer. Mr. Niwa was the artistic director of Sunday at Central, a long-running concert series that brought chamber music to venues throughout the Columbus region, and he taught at Ohio Wesleyan University and Denison University. Born in Chicago, Mr. Niwa received a bachelor’s degree from Curtis before studying at the Juilliard School. He moved to Columbus in 1995 to join the symphony. He is survived by his wife and many other relatives. Read more here.

MICHAELA PAETSCH (Violin ’84), who rose from a large string-playing family to pursue a wide-ranging career as violin soloist, died of cancer on January 20 at age 61. She lived in Bern, Switzerland, for much of the past 30 years. Ms. Paetsch came to Curtis as a student of Szymon Goldberg, with whom she had previously studied at Yale University. In 1985, Ms. Paetsch won the bronze medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition; the next year, she participated in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. By the late 1980s, her career was increasingly centered in Europe, where she appeared with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings included a noted set of Paganini’s 24 Caprices in 1987 and a collection of works by Daron Hagen (Composition ’84) in 2015. Ms. Paetsch was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., the second oldest of seven children, to parents who performed in the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra. After teaching their children string instruments, they formed the Paetsch Family Chamber Music Ensemble, which toured the region in the 1970s. Ms. Paetsch is survived by her husband and daughter.

CHARLES WETHERBEE (Violin ’88), a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and a longtime concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, died of cancer on January 9. He was 56 years old. Mr. Wetherbee, who was known as “Chas,” studied at Curtis with the late Aaron Rosand (’48). His orchestral career began when he was appointed principal second violin of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Five years later, he moved to Ohio to join the Columbus Symphony as concertmaster, a post he held from 1994 to 2011. An active chamber musician, in 2005, he co-founded the Carpe Diem String Quartet, an ensemble with an eclectic repertoire that includes folk arrangements as well as five volumes of Taneyev string quartets. For the past decade, Mr. Wetherbee lived in Boulder, Colo., where he taught violin at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and served as concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Wetherbee debuted at age six with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and later appeared internationally with the Japan Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogota, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, among other ensembles. Mr. Wetherbee is survived by his wife and three children. Read more here.

JOHN “JEFF” FREEMAN (Trombone ’91), who built on a passion for music and science to work as an audio engineer for Dolby Laboratories, died on September 12. He was 53. A native of Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Freeman earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis, followed by a Bachelor of Science in physics from North Carolina State University in 1996. He worked briefly as a research assistant at NASA, focusing on lasers and electro-optics, before bringing his love of physics and music to multiple roles at Dolby Laboratories. For the past 22 years he held roles ranging from licensing engineer to, most recently, director of applications engineering and testing. He is survived by his wife, his two children, and extended family.

FRANK BAYLEY, former longtime trustee of Curtis, passed away on Sunday, September 13 at age 83, following a battle with cancer. He had been a part of the Curtis family for the past twenty-five years. Read more.

CHRIS HODGES, Curtis’s longtime director of admissions, passed away on February 12 at age 66. Mr. Hodges joined the Curtis staff in 1995 and was an integral part of the school for 25 years. Read more.

R. ANDERSON “ANDY” PEW, former longtime trustee of Curtis, passed away on June 25 at age 85. The former chairman of the Pew Charitable Trusts, director at the Glenmede Trust Co., executive at Sun Oil Co., and beloved philanthropist, dedicated 11 years (1992–⁠2003) to serving the Curtis community, and will be sorely missed. Read more.