Gwendolyn Lytle, a member of the music department faculty at Pomona College in Claremont, California, for 35 years, passed away at her home in Claremont on August 22. She had suffered from cancer.
The daughter of a church organist, she began performing in a singing group with her sisters at the age of 9. After graduating from Hunter College in New York City, she went on to receive a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
During her long tenure on the faculty, Lytle taught more than 650 students, in both private voice lessons and classroom courses on music history and literature. Before joining the faculty at Pomona College, Lytle was a lecturer in music at the University of California, Riverside.
Eric Lindholm, the current chair of the music department at Pomona College stated that “Gwendolyn possessed the rare quality that her artistic personality was in perfect synergy with who she was in day-to-day life. Whether in concert performance, the classroom, or a committee meeting, she radiated passion and sincerity in equal abundance. Any occasion with Gwen gained meaning by her presence, because she approached everything with such honesty and commitment that it all felt more important, and more real.”