Mary Sontheimer

Mary Catherine Sontheimer, age 94, of Erie, passed away at Elmwood Gardens on Saturday, October 5, 2019.
She was born on February 27, 1925 in Wyoming, PA a daughter of the late Thomas and Lillian Gabel Stephens.
She graduated from Wyoming High School in 1942 and was accepted at City College of New York but instead attended summer school at the St. Louis Institute of Music, (SLIM) where she received a full scholarship. Academics were completed at Washington University in St. Louis. After graduating with a Bachelors of Music with performance in piano in 1947, she moved to Erie, PA where she was employed by Howard Julian Piano Studios. The Beta Tau chapter of the National Greek music society known as PiMu was the Erie affiliate of SLIM of which Mary was an active teaching member through the Julian studios.
While teaching piano and music theory for Howard Julian she met and married one of her students Milton E. Sontheimer in 1947. She continued teaching for Julian and also privately in her home and later at Our Saviors Lutheran and Abiding Hope Lutheran schools of music and art. She also studied harpsichord performance at the Cleveland Conservatory with Andres Kuprevichos and at summer clinics at Put-In-Bay with Hilda Jonas. She performed the first ever 2 harpsichord concert in Erie with Ray Ellerman in 1964 and then again with the Erie Philharmonic in 1966. It was unique as both instruments are required to be identical to be properly heard. She received a Masters in Music Education from Edinboro University in 1973.
She traveled extensively receiving accreditations in France at the University of Nice and also at the Lucerne Coservatory in Switzerland, both for ensemble and chamber music work. She performed with many aspiring students not only her own but with many other teachers and students from the local area as a performer and an accompanist, which included accompanying and chaperone on overseas trips by the Erie Jr Philharmonic. Member of Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, Eric Civic Music Association, Tuesday Morning Music Club, Music Teachers National Association, Gridley Chapter # 324, Order of the Eastern Star.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband Milton E. Sontheimer in 2014.
She is survived by a son, Paul Sontheimer and his wife Christina of Fairview; a granddaughter, Tina Sontheimer of Fairview and a brother in law, William Sontheimer and his wife Sharron.

Friends may call at the Burton Westlake Funeral Home, 3801 West 26th Street (at Powell Ave) on Tuesday from 4 to 7 p.m. and are invited to attend a service on Wednesday at Abiding Hope Lutheran Church, 2402 W. Grandview Blvd, Erie, PA 16506 at 10:00 a.m. Burial to follow in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Abiding Hope Lutheran Church
Send condolences at www.Burtonfuneralhome.com