Marsha Graff Shuman, 78, of St. Croix, U.S.V.I., passed away peacefully in her home, surrounded by family, on April 14 after battling breast cancer for more than 40 years. She was born June 4, 1941, to David and Florence Graff in Chicago, Ill. She graduated from North Park Academy and went on to attend Northwestern University where she graduated with a Masters in Music with a concentration in piano pedagogy in 1967.
While attending Northwestern, she was mentored by Dr. Guy Duckworth, a pioneer of group piano pedagogy. Under his mentorship, Marsha developed a unique approach to teaching piano, which she continued to use and improve upon throughout her 58+ year teaching career. She established her first piano studio in 1961 while at Northwestern and began teaching piano on St. Croix not long after she arrived on island in 1971.
In 1968, she became one of the first certified piano teachers in Illinois, and in 1969, she was nationally certified by Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) where she has been a member of the organization for more than 50 years. She dedicated her life to sharing her love of music with everyone. She continued to teach through March 2020 until she was no longer strong enough.
Marsha met her husband Philip while attending Northwestern where they shared a love for bridge. They were both living off campus and were members of the Women Off Campus (WOC) and Men Off Campus (MOC) groups, respectively. They were married on Aug. 20, 1966, and a few years after their marriage, in 1971, they moved to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. They fell in love with the island and quickly became adopted natives. Within a few days of arriving on the island, they became involved at Island Center, volunteering for the musicals and filling roles on the board.
They also became involved with the Caribbean Community Theatre as well as the music and theatre department at Good Hope School. Marsha played an important role in the establishment of the Candle Light Concert Series at the Whim Plantation as the artistic director. As part of the concert series, she started a community outreach program providing school children with the opportunity to interact with the visiting artists as part of the Listen and Learn program, which was hosted at Island Center.
Marsha was a pioneer in combining child-centric education and teacher-directed instruction. She trained at Mt. Mary College in Montessori teaching and went on to consult for Marilyn Carson’s Montessori School in the 1970s and the Montessori Program at Manor School in the 1980s. She also worked with Tamarind School, Academy of the West Indies, and founded her own Mid-Island Middle School in the 1970s, combining community and parent instruction in science, technology engineering, arts and mathematics.
She held a diploma in Suzuki intermediate level piano teaching from the Chicago Suzuki Institute and also was certified in the Orff-Schulwerk piano method from Hofstra University. The Orff approach to teaching music is a method that engages the mind and body of students through a mixture of singing, dancing, acting and the use of percussion instruments. She was a music professor at the College of the Virgin Islands, later University of the Virgin Islands, from 1972 to 1975. She felt strongly that children of all ages should have exposure to classical music and volunteered in the schools on a regular basis. She also loved working with adult students, especially in her later years. She was a life-long learner and became fascinated by brain research in regards to music. She used this knowledge in her studio with her students and also to work with the residents at the Herbert Grigg Home for the Aged, helping her students to understand the power of music and the influence it could have on others.
She constantly adjusted and improved her teaching style as she learned new methods and did more research. In her later years, she became especially inspired by local jazz musicians and other jazz/classical improvisational musicians, like her pianist friend, Jacqueline Schwab. She used this style to help her students focus less on the notes and more on the feeling and emotion of each song. Marsha loved to share music with others, and in the last few years of her life, she hosted several professional benefit concerts in her studio. In January 2017, New York violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn played a beautiful concert on her famous 1720 Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin, known as the “red violin,” to help raise scholarship funds for one of Marsha’s students, Chris Tirado, to attend the Luzerne Music Center in New York State. Danish violinist Anna Egholm, accompanied by her father Per Egholm, played an outstanding concert, also on a beautiful Stradivarius violin, in April 2017, benefitting the Danish Virgin Island Cultural Exchange Program, as part of the island’s centennial celebration. Professional pianist Jacqueline Schwab, an expert in vintage American music, played several concerts in the studio, the latest one in February 2019, featuring an original score she created for the documentary “Under Her Wings” that highlights the story and work of local artist Toni Lance, the founder and director of the St. Croix Avian Sanctuary.
Marsha’s love of music and teaching was closely rivaled by her love of gardening. She was an avid hibiscus collector and hybridizer as well as a collector of orchids. Her garden and home are filled with plants she has cultivated and lovingly grown. An educator at heart, she loved to share her knowledge with others about the flowers, plants and gardening techniques she had mastered. She was a member of the St. Croix Orchid Society and the St. Croix Hibiscus Society and maintained a membership with the American Hibiscus Society as well as the St. George Village Botanical Gardens.
Marsha and Philip were both founding members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of St Croix. Her passion for the organization led to her being a board member, leading the music program, working with the youth, and eventually becoming an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister.
Marsha is preceded in death by her husband, Philip. She leaves her children: Gail Feldkamp, Sara Shuman, David Shuman and Michael Shuman; grandchildren: Arthur Feldkamp, Sara Lee Feldkamp, Max Feldkamp, Katie Rose Duke, Rylon Shuman, Owen Shuman and Kya Shuman; great-grandchildren: Daniel, Sebastian, Jocelyn and Lily; and numerous cousins, students and friends.
The family extends special thanks to Continuum Care VI, specifically nurse Lindy Freeman, as well as Lorine Williams, Dr. Lyn Campbell, The Health Institute de Tijuana, Dr. Dawn Manning and Dr. Kendall Griffith, and the parents and students of the Shuman Piano Studio for their support during Marsha’s illness.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Luzerne Music Center (https://www.luzernemusic.org/general-donations) or the St. George Village Botanical Gardens (https://sgvbg.org/how-you-can-help/donate/) in her name.
