Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus

They were mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. Many were proud grandparents. Two were sisters from a tightknit South Side family. All were loved, relatives say, and will be forever missed. As the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 ticks upward, the Tribune is working to chronicle those who have lost their lives in the Chicago area or who have connections to our region. These are some of those victims.

RAYMOND NIWA, 97

From Chicago. Died May 27.

Raymond Niwa, who died May 27 at age 97 with the coronavirus as a contributing factor, played the violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for some 46 years. His son, David Niwa, a self-described “chip off the old block,” is a violinist in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

Reached at his home in a reflective and, he said, a thankful mood, David Niwa said that he recently had been pondering all the things his father had made easy for him, as a good father can do.

“I have been thinking about all the paths he laid down,” Niwa said, “including reminding me that I wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans unless I practiced.”

“My father,” David Niwa said, with something of a verbal shudder at the recollection, “was very honest. He was an achievement-oriented person.”

His achievements, including being the Chicago City Parks tennis champion in 1937, speak for themselves. But frankness also was a hallmark of Raymond Niwa’s teaching, which included working with music students at DePaul University from 1946-48, followed by a much longer tenure at Roosevelt University, where he headed the faculty’s string quartet for eight years and worked with scores of young violinists.

David Niwa said his father was a skilled advocate and financier, a quality the CSO confirmed in its tribute to Niwa, a longtime fixture on the side of the musicians union when it came to contract negotiations.

Raymond Niwa was first invited to join the CSO in 1951 by controversial music director Rafael Kubelik, who sparred often with the Tribune arts critic Claudia Cassidy, who waged a campaign against him.

The CSO said that, during his epic tenure, Niwa had performed as a featured soloist on just two occasions: In Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto in 1953 and in Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto in 1970. The bulk of his work was from the ensemble ranks of the orchestra he loved.

Born in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood into a home without running hot water and with few other material comforts, Niwa was a graduate of Lane Tech and DePaul University and served in the Army during the Second World War. He also performed with other orchestras, including the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and, briefly, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

“My father was a brilliant orchestra musician, a brilliant organizer and a brilliant defender of those who did not have very much,” David Niwa said, recounting a story of a once-impoverished, now-famous musician whom his father had taken under his wing, even to the point of moving his student into his family home. “He was a great teacher and an incredibly decent human being.”

Raymond Niwa started playing the violin much later than most professional musicians, but he was able to continue playing into his 97th year, only putting down the instrument some three months before he died.

Niwa’s wife, Eloise, an accomplished pianist, died in 2013. Along with their son David, the famously close couple also are survived by a daughter, Gail, who is a famed American pianist. Both younger Niwas trained at the Julliard School. And all four members of the Niwa family have been CSO soloists, a distinction the orchestra said was unique to them.