July 14, 1934 – May 13, 2025

From its prelude to its closing measure, the life of accomplished pianist Ruth Demaree Peck was like a musical score, as beautiful and moving as any of the pieces she once played. Music was the driving metronome of Ruth’s life, and even after its tempo slowed, Ruth waited to release the cadence of her final breaths until all her children had gathered around her hospital bed in St. Louis and were singing “Be Still My Soul”—a lullaby-like hymn that Ruth and her husband Russell often played on the piano or sang with the family. Transposed to a higher register in a major key, Ruth’s spirit now sings in unison with her beloved husband Russell. After a two-year coda at the Clarendale Retirement Community in Clayton, Missouri, Ruth’s musical story will find its peaceful resolution when she returns to Rochester, NY, her home for 62 years, to rest alongside Russell in the Mount Hope Cemetery.

In a letter of recommendation for a piano student, Ruth once wrote, “Natural talent by itself, of course, is no guarantee of success. Bringing those gifts to fruition requires dedication, discipline, and constant application.” Ruth’s own remarkable achievements as a concert pianist and teacher were certainly the result of both innate genius and hard work. The youngest of four children, Ruth was born in Thompson, Illinois to Ethel Champion and Glenn Demaree, who both believed in her musical talents and ardently supported her career. They bought her a piano when she was a child, and later moved to Dixon, Illinois to find her a better piano teacher. Ruth excelled under her new teacher and became a primary church pianist by the time she reached eighth grade.

A 1955 cum laude graduate of the University of Colorado, where she studied with mentor and lifelong friend Storm Bull, Miss Demaree appeared in concerts throughout the state, as well as in Wyoming and Texas. After receiving a Master of Music degree and the coveted Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University in 1957, Ruth continued her studies with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire de la Musique in Paris on a Fulbright scholarship.

Ruth projected her voice and passions through her expressive, nuanced music. It is perhaps not surprising that while Ruth played the romantic Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Indiana University Philharmonic, a musical graduate student in English named Russell Peck fell in love with her. After Ruth’s Fulbright ended, Russell flew to Paris and they were married on June 18, 1958, in a fairy-tale wedding in l’église américaine de Paris, followed by a reception on a bateau-mouche down the Seine.

Ruth found balance in her roles as musician, wife and mother of three children: Demaree, Nathan and Gunther. On Monday nights she played at The Hochstein School of Dance to accompany modern dancers from NYC in rehearsal. Rather than play written music, Ruth improvised according to the movements of the dancers. In the intricate “dance” of domestic life, Ruth similarly improvised. A feminist before her time, Ruth broke the mold during her Fulbright when she enrolled in a French cooking class open only to men, reflecting the societal assumption that men alone could become chefs. “Cheffe” Ruth could whip up a roux or a soufflé in her kitchen as well as adapt her French cooking skills to a simple Sterno burner while camping. Ruth’s upbringing as a child of the Depression also served her well. She never wasted a scrap or threw away a leftover; if there was extra vanilla frosting from her “Cockeyed chocolate cake,” for example, she would spread it between graham crackers for the kids’ lunches the next day.

In 1972-73, when the family moved to their rustic 19th -century farm in Ontario during Russell’s sabbatical from the University of Rochester, Ruth harvested and put up vegetables for the year from a huge garden, taught Demaree to knead Red River cereal bread and roll out crusts for rhubarb pie, made sweet crunches and jams with the wild raspberries Gunther picked, and gamely cooked whatever meat Nathan provided from his hunts, be it rabbit, partridge, or beaver. Ruth rolled up her sleeves to pluck chickens, make sausage from the pigs they raised, and boil down maple sap for syrup.

Together with Russell, a Medievalist, Ruth formed a Madrigal group that rehearsed at the house every Sunday night. Ruth hosted countless fabulous fêtes, dinners, and picnics in the backyard for Russell’s undergraduate and graduate students, colleagues, visiting scholars, speakers, and poets, as well as participants in his annual NEH summer seminars or Theater in London trips.

Thanks largely to Ruth’s sparkling conviviality and warm hospitality, the Pecks’ home became a popular hub for stimulating intellectual conversations and animated social life. Ruth and Russell collaborated to put on the famous English Department graduation ceremony, for which Ruth played the piano and conducted the faculty, trying to keep them on pitch.

In addition to her two grand pianos, Ruth possessed the instrument of her euphonious soprano voice. The American spiritual “How Can I Keep from Singing” aptly describes Ruth’s life, for indeed, she couldn’t resist breaking into “endless song” as she led family and friends in a variety of tunes: Broadway songs or Christmas carols around the piano; “The First Noël” sung in a candle procession down the stairs on Christmas morning; rounds and folk songs on family bike rides, hikes, or long cross-country car trips. Even grace at the dinner table was sung as a round called “For Health and Strength.” Ruth loved singing in good company outside the family as well, harmonizing in the Rochester Oratorio Society along with many other choirs including the Downtown Presbyterian Church choir. When the family lived in Ontario, Ruth directed the church choir at Mount St. Patrick’s Catholic Church after recruiting her husband and three kids to double the choir’s roster. Back in Rochester, she served as the musical director of the Parents’ Show at McQuaid Jesuit High School, where Nathan and Gunther attended, transforming a motley crew of parents into Broadway-inspired singers and actors. Along with singing, Ruth orchestrated dancing. She often called boisterous square dances in her Canadian farm kitchen.

Soon after the family’s return from their year at the farm, when the kids entered middle and high schools, Ruth relaunched her musical career as a serious pianist and teacher. First, she opened the “Ruth Peck Studio” in the family living room at 180 Crosman Terrace, and then, in 1978, took a job as Professor of Music at the State University of New York in Geneseo. While she taught part-time at Geneseo, Ruth continued teaching students of all ages in her home. For over 40 years, until her retirement from the home studio in 2013, Ruth inspired students, fine-tuned their piano playing skills, and changed their lives. Ruth was a brilliant piano teacher who used colorful metaphors to help students grasp the idea and feeling of a piece. She emphasized dynamics and emotional interpretation as much as precise technique. Her home students and their families looked forward to the spring piano recitals as celebrations of music and beauty. Russell pitched in to design unique homemade programs, set up chairs, arrange gorgeous bouquets from the garden, and make Ruth’s signature sherbet and ginger ale punch. A member of the Rochester Piano Teachers’ Guild, Ruth prepared all students to reach their full potentials, proudly coaching several to win the prestigious Howard Hanson award in their senior years of high school.

At Geneseo and numerous venues across the state, Ruth performed to standing ovations, giving as many as a dozen concerts a year during the 1980’s. She loved performing piano compositions from across the Romantic era, especially Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen,” Felix Mendelssohn’s “Sweet Remembrance,” Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” Johannes Brahms piano works Opus 118 and 119, and Edvard Grieg’s “Lyric Pieces,” one of which can be heard here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCuAWPDJS0k/. (Ruth’s piano performances will soon be available on Spotify.) Throughout her career and after her retirement, Ruth remained an active member of Morning Musicale, where she helped foster a vibrant community of Rochester musicians. She both performed and accompanied friends such as soprano Ruth Bent and cellist Sarah Johnson on compositions ranging from Bach to Dvorak.

Ruth’s legacy is immeasurable. Most obviously, she passed on the gift of music, giving pianos to each of her children, as well as to her grandsons Elijah and Gabe, who travel the world as professional jazz pianists. Moreover, Ruth loved all forms of art. She once wrote an essay comparing Chopin’s “profoundly beautiful” Nocturne in C# minor, Op. 27 to a painting with “an amazing palette of tonal colors in a very tight and well-designed structure.” As she wrote:

“Listening to it is something akin to standing before a great painting in a museum. First one sees the whole effect, then notices the details of some particular corner or face or activity, how the lines are directing our attention, where the main focus and light draw us into the artist’s landscape, compelling us to consider the overall balance between refuge (that which is safe) and prospect (that which is mysterious and unknown).”

Ruth and Russell shared an appreciation for paintings and turned their home into a veritable art gallery. A single painting was their idea of a perfect Christmas gift to themselves, as well as to many fortunate others. In addition, Ruth and Russell loved theater. They purchased annual season tickets not just to the RPO, but also to Geva theater and the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Their mutual love of theater inspired University of Rochester students, alumni, and “Friends of the Library” to travel with them on the “Theater in London” trips they founded and led together for over 30 years. In 2013, Janice Willett was so impressed by her experience on two London theater trips that she and her husband Joseph established the “Russell and Ruth Peck Artistic Directorship” to honor them for their contagious passion and patronage of the theater. The fund supports the artistic director of the international theater program in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Ruth’s support for the arts was personal, rooted in an expansive camaraderie with artists as individuals. In 1971, when NYC black actor James McGill came to Rochester to star in a play, he was repeatedly refused housing due to systemic racism. While Jim was instructed to wait in the car, the realtor would walk to the door to answer an ad for a room to rent, but once she mentioned that Jim was black, she was invariably turned away on the pretext that the room was no longer available. Jim was ready to abandon the show and return to NYC, when the theater staff thought to call Ruth Peck, well-known for her enthusiastic support of artists. As expected, Ruth was delighted to host an actor. Jim moved into the Pecks’ home for the run of the show, A Raisin in the Sun, babysat the children, and became a cherished member of the family. A powerful role model to her children, Ruth lived her democratic values of inclusion.

Throughout her life, Ruth felt compassion and empathy for those in need and made regular donations to the Al Sigl Center, Special Olympics, the American Indian College Fund, Habitat for Humanity, Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, Open Door Mission, NYPIRG and numerous other charities and non-profits. When Ruth heard a call for help, she responded. She was that “kind” a person.

In a moment of self-reflection, Ruth once described her greatest asset as her “energy.” Ruth expressed this effervescent vitality in everything she did: most immediately in her melodious singing and lyrical laugh, and more indirectly, through her legacies of heartfelt music, beautiful art, social justice, homegrown harvests, and above all, loving devotion to her family and friends. By her own example, Ruth taught her three children, ten grandchildren, and one great grandchild that if they possess the desire, they can become anything they want to be.

Ruth Demaree Peck is survived by her three children: Demaree Catherine Peck of Lexington, VA, and her four children, Caleb Russell Lambert, Catherine Jeanne Lambert, Savannah Ruth Lambert, and Nathaniel Kenneth Lambert; Nathan Russell Peck and Rebecca Davis Peck of Clayton, MO, and their three children, Christopher Nathan Peck (Jaclyn and their son James), Cody William Peck, and Lindsey Catherine Peck (Jared); and Gunther William Peck and Carol Faulkner Fox of Durham, NC, and their three children, Elijah Sostrom Fox-Peck, Gabriel Spaulding Fox-Peck, and Carol Miranda Fox-Peck.

A Celebration of Life service for Ruth is being planned in Rochester, NY, on the weekend of October 18, 2025.