Eleanor Lawrence, soloist, recording artist, and teacher, died in New York of brain cancer on January 14, 2001, at the age of 64. She was a member of the NFA board and from 1977 to 1984 was the editor of the NFA Newsletter, for which she conducted interviews with such prominent flutists as John Wummer and Elaine Shaffer. She was elected to three terms as president of the New York Flute Club and served on its board and advisory board for more than thirty years. A founder of the Marcel Moyse Society, Ms. Lawrence had been its president since 1993.

Born in Boston, she was the daughter of John C. Baker, who became president of Ohio University. When she was a teenager, the composer and pianist Ernst von Dohnanyi visited the campus. Walking home with him after a concert, Eleanor complained about the relative lack of flute music compared to that for the piano or stringed instruments. He responded by writing his last two compositions for the flute and dedicating them to her. She premiered these works, the Passacaglia for solo flute and the Aria for flute and piano, at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1969, and later recorded them.

Eleanor Lawrence studied with James Pappoutsakis while an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, where she majored in political science, and at the New England Conservatory, where she earned a master's degree in flute. She also studied with William Kincaid, Harold Bennett, and Marcel Moyse. She moved to New York in the early 1960s and taught in the preparatory division of the Manhattan School of Music. For many years she regularly played with New York orchestras, including the American Symphony under Stokowski, the New York Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and most frequently with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. She also performed as soloist with the Boston Pops and at Alice Tully Hall.

In 1968 she founded the Monomoy Chamber Ensemble, whose annual concert series in the Monomoy Theatre in Chatham, Massachusetts, was a highlight of the summer music scene on Cape Cod. Two years ago, renamed Monomoy Music, the ensemble launched a New York concert series in Weill Recital Hall. Her master classes in flute, which she held each summer on the Cape, were attended by flutists from all over the United States and abroad.

Eleanor Lawrence's recordings include French Music for Voice and Flute (with Bethany Beardslee), The Complete Flute Works of Paul Hindemith , and Music for Flute and Piano, all on the Musical Heritage Society label. Her latest CD, Flute Favorites , includes a selection of short pieces from the teaching repertoire. With William Bennett, Ms. Lawrence coordinated The Best of Marcel Moyse, a CD soon to be released by the Marcel Moyse Society. She also produced a videotape on which she teaches Moyse's 24 Petites Etudes Mélodiques .

She is survived by her husband, Frank Steindler; her children, Catherine and Frederick Steindler; and her sisters, Anne and Elizabeth Baker. There will be a memorial concert in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City, on March 27, and a tribute at the NFA convention in Dallas. The New York Flute Club is also planning a tribute for next season.

--Nancy Toff

[This notice is part of a full tribute to Eleanor Lawrence that appeared in the spring issue of the Flutist Quarterly . © 2001 The National Flute Association, Inc.]