Feb. 13--When Ethel Arenz was 12 years old, she played music by Frederic Chopin on the piano during a half-hour program on WMAQ radio. She later received a scholarship to Chicago Musical College, and while there performed four times at Orchestra Hall.
But rather than pursue a career in performance, Arenz chose to teach. And for 85 years a parade of students -- some the children of the children of former students -- sat at her Steinway baby grand in her home and learned how to play, arrange and compose music.
Two years ago, at 101, Arenz gave her final lesson.
"She'd lost some hearing and her hands were badly arthritic, but she kept playing," said her son, David, a former principal of the second violin section with the Atlanta Symphony. "At an age when most people aren't even alive, she had the facility to perform some really amazing pieces."
Arenz, 103, died Jan. 26 of natural causes in Rosewood Care Center, an assisted living facility in Inverness, her family said. She was a longtime resident of Oak Park and of Mount Prospect.
"She was a tremendous teacher and very talented musician who could easily have found success in the performing world," said Chris Jahns, who took lessons from Arenz as a child. "Instead she began teaching piano to squirrelly little kids, like myself, and instilled in them a love of music.
"Looking back, she also taught me the value in being a good father or mother or doing the work of anyone else behind the scenes that has a positive influence on young lives. She showed me that this, too, was a noble path."
Born Ethel Evensen in Chicago, the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, Arenz grew up in Oak Park and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1930. She took her first piano lesson at age 9 and was teaching by 16.
While in high school, she met Milton Arenz. They married in 1937 and settled in Oak Park, where she began raising a family and giving lessons out of their home. He died in 1974.
"Before a student would arrive, she'd change into a dress and heels, put on jewelry and pull her hair up into a bouffant," said her daughter, Nancy Carlson. "She'd look very professional, even though her students were mostly in elementary school."
Arenz hosted frequent recitals at local public and private venues, in buildings known for their exceptional acoustics. She would send out formal invitations to her students' families.
"She was a perfectionist," said Barbara Duncan, who teaches piano, and whose daughter took lessons from Arenz many years ago. "She taught only the classics and set her metronome at 40 (beats per minute). I can still hear her telling my daughter, 'Slow down, don't rush. Feel the music!' "
Arenz later moved to Mount Prospect, where she continued to teach out of her home until two years ago, when she gave her final lesson to one of her seven remaining students.
"She'd have kept going, but time had finally caught up with her," her son said.
Over the years, Arenz also played the piano and organ at churches she attended, most recently Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park.
"It all began in her childhood church," her daughter said. "She was just 4-years-old, when she heard a song played during a service and came home and said, 'I can play that on our piano.'
"And you know what? She did!"
Survivors also include 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter.
