In Memoriam: Roger Cunningham

Roger Cunningham, age 81, died on June 21, 2022. Roger was born on December 4, 1940, in Chicago, and grew up in Galesburg, IL. He and his wife Shirley resided for most of their married life in the Peoria area.

Roger earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois, and proudly played trombone in the US Army band for two years at Fort Knox. He also played trombone in the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and the Peoria Municipal Band. Roger was a skilled player of recorders and participated in various recorder ensembles and music festivals throughout the country. Roger had a career in computer programming.

He and Shirley joined ARS in 1982.
 
A tribute from Roger’s recorder teacher, renowned professional player Cléa Galhano:
 
If you are a member of the American Recorder Society, you get many benefits. One of them is the ARS Newsletter—the one that used to contain the touring calendar for professional recorder players [which is now accessed online through ARS NEWS]. Quite a few years ago, I received an email from an amateur recorder player who noticed in that touring calendar that I was performing in Milwaukee, WI. He wrote, ”My name is Roger. I play recorder. I saw that you are performing in Milwaukee and I want to have a recorder lesson with you, under the condition that the price of the hourly lesson is more than a plumber’s hourly service.” I thought that it was a very funny request. Since then, I have always taught Roger when I was performing somewhere around the Midwest. We developed a beautiful friendship, and he was one of the first players to join the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest (ROMW, based in Indiana), where I am the Music Director.
 
One Christmas I received a card from Roger saying, “The plumber was at my house for 10 minutes, charged $75 and didn’t touch my soul!”
 
Besides the love Roger had for recorder, he also wanted to help foster the new generation of players. In the time that I taught Roger, I had two very talented recorder students. Roger knew about their financial struggles. He not only paid for all of their lessons with me and for extra expenses, but also for their entire four years studying music at a university, where they continued studying recorder. They didn’t know that he was their benefactor. We called him “the angel.” I was the intermediary who connected my students, their parents, the university, the bank and Roger. He was so happy and proud that they graduated, and that each one started developing a beautiful music career.
 
Thanks, Roger, for being so generous, for loving the recorder and for helping the new generation. You were indeed an angel.