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Lois Bichl (née Lois Colburn; 11 DEC 1898 Pittsfield, Massachusetts – 23 MAY 1975 Harris County, Texas) was an American cellist.

Career

She studied in New York with (i) Carl A. Brüchkner (1868–1951), a cellist with the Chicago Symphony for 41 years, and (ii) Bruno Steindel (1866–1949) and in Chicago with (iii) Alfred Wallenstein (1898–1983). In 1925, she co-founded the Women's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.

Lois Bichl, under the name Lois Colburn, went on as become a cellist with the Houston Symphony and San Antonio Symphony and also was an influential music educator.

Notable students

• Margaret Evans (née Margaret Jean Cree; 1917–2007), who was the wife of violist Donald Murchison Evans (1916–2003) of the Chicago Symphony. As cellist, she was a member of the Chicago Symphony from 1948 to 1988 and also was a member of the Indianapolis Symphony, the National Symphony of Washington, Grant Park Symphony (principal cellist). Margaret Evans first played violin and piano, but her mother and cousin played these, and her father played viola. So at age 12, Margaret Evans took up the cello for the family quartet.

Margaret was cellist with the Raymond J. Niwa Trio:

Raymond Joseph Niwa (born 1922), violin, Eloise Niwa (née Eloise Matthies; 1928–2013), piano (Raymond's wife). They had a son and daughter:

Son: David Andrew Niwa (born 1964) is the Assistant Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony, and, like his father, he married a pianist, Mariko Kaneda.

Daugher: Gail Niwa (born 1959) is a pianist and 1991 winner of the Bachauer International Piano Competition, the only woman to win the Gold Medal.

• David Tannenbaum

Family

She was married twice, both to musicians, first, on March 11, 1920, to Frederick Thomas Langan (1877–1940), xylophonist and second, on August 21, 1925, to Edgar Anthony Bichl (1885–1968).

References

Category:1898 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Category:American classical cellists