MARY COFFMAN TILTON
Mary Tilton, 64
Aug. 28, 1942 - Dec. 20, 2006
Mary Tilton was honored at the annual Gala Dinner on February 11, 2007. Remembering Mary Tilton by George Van Arsdale.
BLOOMINGTON — Mary Coffman Tilton, president of the board of the Bloomington Early Music Festival, accomplished harpsichordist, scholar, active church member and community volunteer, died December 20 in Bloomington, her home for 36 years. She was 64.
Mary Hartwell Coffman was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Aug. 28, 1942. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where her father worked as a lawyer for the Department of Agriculture. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance at Wooster College in Ohio in 1964 and a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music in 1966.
She moved to Bloomington in August 1970 with her then-husband Timothy Tilton (who still resides locally). Bloomington turned out to be an ideal place for Ms. Tilton to pursue her passion of music. Some years after her children entered school, she began to study harpsichord at the Indiana University School of Music under Anthony Newman and Elisabeth Wright. She won the audience prize in the 1987 Magnum Opus harpsichord competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and her performance was aired on National Public Radio. In 1995, she was granted a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in literature and performance of early music from Indiana University. She was at the top of her class all the way through her graduate courses, even while maintaining a job and caring for her two children, said Ms. Wright.
Ms. Tilton was a teacher as well as a scholar of early music. She was a harpsichord instructor in the pre-college program of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, and also taught piano to many budding young musicians in the living room of her house in Park Ridge East. In recent years, she translated and adapted the work of Jean Nicolas Geoffroy, one of the most important composers in France during the Baroque period. The fascination of deciphering the notations of a long-ago composer delighted her, and years later she could describe with excitement the first time she saw — in the reading room of a library in Paris — the original manuscript she had been studying for so many years via photocopy and reprint. Her work, Geoffroy: The Collected Works is to be published in 2007 by the Broude Trust of Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Ms. Tilton promoted the performance and appreciation of early Baroque music in the Bloomington community and beyond. She was president of the board of Early Music Associates, the nonprofit organization that produces the annual Bloomington Early Music Festival. She played an instrumental role in the growth and prestige of the festival both regionally and nationally, and encouraged talented young performers in the field of early music, said fellow board member George Van Arsdale.
Church and community service were extremely important to Ms. Tilton. She was a regular congregant and choir member at the Trinity Episcopal Church, served on the vestry for three years, and took pleasure in designing floral arrangements for the church. December 15 marked the last in a series of weekly music recitals she had organized at Trinity for Advent this year. Ms. Tilton also gave generously of her time and money to local community organizations, including Habitat for Humanity and the Bloomington Community Foundation.
Ms. Tilton also was Executive Director of the Patten Foundation program at Indiana University, which brought distinguished speakers from around the world to the campus. She enjoyed playing host to such luminaries as Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda, Indian development economist Amartya Sen and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Anna Quindlan.
Ms. Tilton adored and took great pride in her two children, Andrew and Anna, following their travels, professional progress, and most recently their respective weddings. They and their spouses, along with Ms. Tilton’s sister and her family, took part in annual summer outings to Emerald Isle, a beach community in North Carolina’s Outer Banks — an event Ms. Tilton anticipated and treasured year round. At home, Ms. Tilton doted on Allegro and Arioso, two cats she had rescued from the Bloomington landfill.
Ms. Tilton is survived by her son Andrew Robert Tilton of Brooklyn, New York, her daughter Anna Tilton Daniel of Arlington, Virginia, and her sister Margaret Noll of Mukono, Uganda.
A ceremony and reception in her honor was held Saturday, Dec. 30, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bloomington. The family requests that memorial contributions be directed to:
The "Mary Tilton Memorial Fund"
Bloomington Early Music Festival
P.O. Box 734
Bloomington, IN 47402-0734
or to
"In memory of Mary Tilton"
Trinity Episcopal Church
400 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47408
