Amelia R. Gigliotti, 90, music teacher and performer
A memorial concert will be held Sunday, Dec. 11, for Amelia Rabinowitz Gigliotti, 90, of Philadelphia, a music teacher and performer, who died Monday, Oct. 24, of old age at home.
A memorial concert will be held Sunday, Dec. 11, for Amelia Rabinowitz Gigliotti, 90, of Philadelphia, a music teacher and performer, who died Monday, Oct. 24, of old age at home.
Mrs. Gigliotti was a fountain of creativity.
She played music and taught it, and her energy attracted other creative people into her sphere.
Later, when Mrs. Gigliotti had a family, this made for a lively childhood, said her daughter, Lynne.
"Our front foyer was like a music conservatory. You couldn't come without a music student waiting in the foyer. You'd wake up on Saturday morning and there would be a woodwind quintet rehearsing in the living room."
Mrs. Gigliotti was part of what she saw as the "Golden Age" of the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductors Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti, her daughter said.
For 65 years starting in 1949, when her husband, Anthony, was appointed principal clarinet, she attended almost every Saturday night concert of the orchestra.
She traveled internationally with the orchestra and volunteered to chair its annual radiothon fund-raisers.
A prodigy, Mrs. Gigliotti was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 4. Her family took her out of the school so she could have a more traditional childhood. She graduated from West Philadelphia High School, went to Settlement Music School, and graduated in 1947 with a degree in piano pedagogy from Temple University.
From 1943 to 1979, Mrs. Gigliotti taught piano theory and was a vocal coach and piano department head at Settlement. While there, she designed and implemented a course on basic musicianship.
Starting in 1980, she taught piano at the University of the Arts. Nine years later, she became a piano instructor at Lincoln University.
Her master classes and seminars were so well-regarded that she was invited to offer them in Japan and Sweden.
When not teaching, Mrs. Gigliotti gave solo piano recitals and participated in live chamber music performances. She gave a recital in 1984 at the Library of Congress in Washington. She also was a vocal coach and accompanist.
Her creativity extended to her hobbies. Mrs. Gigliotti was known for knitting beautiful sweaters and women's suits. She crocheted and did needlepoint of museum quality.
"The stitches were so exact that people would ask, 'A person did that?' " her daughter said.
As a young woman, she enjoyed sailing, fishing, and waterskiing at the Jersey Shore. Later, she enjoyed Lake George, N.Y., when the orchestra went there in the summer.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Gigliotti is survived by sons Mark and Neal. Her husband, from whom she was divorced, died in 2001. Mark Gigliotti is the coprincipal bassoon with the orchestra.
The memorial concert for Mrs. Gigliotti is planned for 11:30 a.m. Dec. 11 in the second-floor social room at the Philadelphian, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. Burial is private.
Donations may be made to the Amelia Rabinowitz Gigliotti Fund for Piano Study, Settlement Music School, Box 63966, Philadelphia 19147.
610-313-8102