NMPAS Dedicates our 10th Anniversary Season to Lois Rudnick!

In Memoriam
Lois Rudnick

 

Lois Rudnick and her husband Steve have been great friends of NMPAS and of our chamber music programs, in particular. In tributes to Lois – from Robert Nott of the Santa Fe New Mexican (June 11, 2021), from her colleagues at UMass Boston, where she taught for over 30 years before retiring to Santa Fe with Steve, and at the wonderful memorial held in Taos at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House on Sunday, October 17, 2021 – several words that describe Lois Palken Rudnick came repeatedly to mind:

Joyful
A Shining Light
Mentor
Honest and Caring
Fun

NMPAS met Lois and Steve because they came to our concerts in the early years and continued to come to many programs. I particularly recall one concert in which NMPAS presented a newly commissioned work by Aaron Alter, Lo Lanu Ha-Shem, a psalm setting for women’s chorus and chamber ensemble. When the premiere finished, Lois jumped out of her seat, filled with the kind of passion and enthusiasm that others said were very much the essence of the Wonder Woman who we lost to multiple myeloma on June 6, 2021.

Lois was a true friend to NMPAS. She adored chamber music! When I asked Steve how we could honor Lois, he wrote, “Just keep on doing what you are doing.” And in her honor and memory, we dedicate our Tenth Anniversary Season to Lois Rudnick, a brilliant scholar, true friend, a woman who loved life and lived it to the fullest, and a believer in the freedom embodied in the Statue of Liberty.

Thank you, Lois, for all that you have given to NMPAS, to your family, colleagues, and to the world. We will think of you whenever we program music we believe you would have loved, whether from the standard repertoire or a newly commissioned work.

Linda Marianiello
Executive Director
October 9, 2021