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IN MEMORIAM
AMANDA V. LETHCO
Amanda Vick Lethco, professor emeritus in the Keyboard
Division of the School of Music, died on February 20, 2000, in Peterborough,
New Hampshire. She was 78.
Professor Lethco was born on October 25, 1921, in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, and graduated from Vicksburg High School. She attended
All Saints Episcopal College in Vicksburg and Mississippi Women's University
before receiving, in 1942, a bachelor's degree in piano performance
and music education from Northwestern University. She received a master's
in piano performance at Northwestern in 1944 and attended the Juilliard
School of Music in 1944—45.
After teaching studio piano and music history at The
University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor from 1945 through
1947, Professor Lethco maintained a private studio in New York City,
1965—67, and in Houston, 1967—77. In 1977 she returned to
UT Austin, where she taught until she retired in 1993. During the course
of her career, she gave workshops and piano master classes throughout
the United States and in Canada, Europe, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
She and Dr. Willard Palmer wrote Creating Music at
the Piano, a 19-volume educational series published by Alfred Publishing
Company, in New York, that has been translated into seven languages.
A colleague evaluated the piano method presented in the series as being
among the top three methods available for teaching piano to children.
When Northwestern University awarded her its Alumni Merit Award in 1997,
another colleague said that Professor Lethco's piano project and piano
workshops "have touched more students' lives than the work of anyone
else in the field." In 1972, Professor Lethco was awarded an honorary
doctorate of humanities degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
Biographical sketch prepared by Nancy Richey
and posted on the Faculty Council web site on December 4, 2000.
Additional biographical sources can be found in the UT Austin
School of Music, Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Executive
Vice President and Provost, and Barker Texas History Center.
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