Mary Ruth Ray, professor of the practice of music at Brandeis University, died late last month in Brookline, Massachusetts, after a battle with cancer. She was 56 years old.
Professor Ray had taught on the Brandeis faculty for more than three decades. She was an accomplished viola player and was the founder of the university’s Lydian String Quartet. In 2005 she was named chair of the department of music at Brandeis.
A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Ray earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the State University of New York at Purchase. In 1977 she joined Emmanuel Music, a Boston-based ensemble of singers and instrumentalists founded in 1970. She joined the faculty at Brandeis in 1980.