"Marta Sanchez was an international treasure," says Annabelle Joseph, director of the Dalcroze Training Center at Carnegie Mellon. "...A master teacher, consummate musician and a creative thinker."
Sanchez, Emerita Professor of Music and founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Dalcroze Training Center, died April 15. Born in Chile, and formerly of Pittsburgh, Sanchez retired from Carnegie Mellon after 40 years of teaching. She was internationally recognized as an author, researcher, lecturer, educational consultant and Dalcroze specialist. The Dalcroze Method is an approach to teaching musical concepts through which students learn to combine music and movement in order to develop rhythmic unity between the eye, ear, mind and body.
"I met Marta when she first came to Pittsburgh," says Joseph. "She has been my teacher, mentor, colleague, piano partner, office mate and very dear friend. She was a sensitive, perceptive, elegant and sophisticated lady."
Sanchez was a past president of the Dalcroze Society of America and board member of the Centre Nationale de Documentation Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland. She initiated the Dalcroze Training Center satellite programs in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. She was a presenter of Dalcroze workshops in Europe, Latin America and Australia. As recently as last September, she was conducting workshops in Indonesia.
During her tenure at Carnegie Mellon, she co-developed Piano Tutor, a computer-aided system to teach beginning piano; designed and supervised the eurhythmics program for Head Start when it began in the Pittsburgh Public Schools; initiated the Lucca Opera Program for singers; and established Carnegie Mellon’s Dalcroze Training Center in 1968.
Sanchez received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Pittsburgh, and her Dalcroze Diplome at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Switzerland. She studied piano and music education at the University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Sanchez authored "The Spanish Villancico of the Eighteenth Century" as well as innumerable educational articles. She was very active in educational and artistic institutions and as a review of books on music and music education.
Sanchez is survived by her sister, Patricia Houghton of Barrington, R.I.; her stepson Sergio Carvajal Jr., of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and her stepdaughter Nicole Moning of Leiden, Netherlands.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Dalcroze Training Center, School of Music, at Carnegie Mellon.
