Rhona Sterling

Rhona Sterling died Tuesday March 17th at the age of 84. Ms. Sterling was born in New York City to Russian immigrants Luba and Kostya Ginn. An aficionado and talent in classical music from a young age, she attended the High School of Music & Art, playing both the flute and piano. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Music at Barnard, and afterwards went on to receive her master's at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Ms. Sterling conducted choirs, taught music appreciation and demonstrated techniques of teaching music at Harvard-Newton, and later taught at the Walden School from 1963-69. She began teaching private piano, theory and musicianship in 1964 and led numerous workshops in New York and Los Angeles.She met character actor and former jazz pianist Philip Sterling in New York on a blind date in 1968. They were married the next year and had one daughter, moving to Los Angeles in 1975. Following her husband's death in 1998, Ms. Sterling continued teaching piano privately and performed occasionally in the LA area. She was warm and funny, an avid fan of books, loved food and was an excellent cook and baker, a great Scrabble player and wonderful storyteller, and cherished spending time with family and friends. She is survived by her daughter, Mila.