The Hope College and music community are invited to a celebration of life service for retired music professor Joan Clare Conway, on May 30 at 10 a.m., at First Reformed Church at 630 State St. in Holland.
Conway died peacefully in Holland, Mich. on April 30, at the age of 90. A professor emerita of music and known as a “two-piano and four-hands performer,” Conway was a member of the Hope College Music Department from 1969-2001. She was also a regular and devoted fan of the Hope women’s basketball team. She will be remembered for the significant and positive impact she had on countless students and the greater Hope community.
In her studio, Conway produced scores of excellent pianists, and she coordinated and
performed in the Faculty Recital Series at Hope. She also co-founded and ran the Hope
College Two-Piano Camp. She was among the “Living Legends” celebration in 2017, when
Hope brought Conway and two other retired (now deceased) music faculty — Roger Rietberg
and Robert Ritsema — to celebrate each of their 30+ years of teaching at Hope during
the department of music’s annual opening convocation. With Ritsema, she performed
“Vocalise” by Sergei Rachmaninoff. During the event, Conway noted that, “The reward
of living a long time without children or grandchildren is seeing students achieve
beyond Hope (College), not just in piano.”
In 2015, Conway was invited to join former faculty member Andrew Le to select the Steinway concert grand piano for the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts, after donor David P. Roossien made the purchase possible with his gift. It was installed in May 2015.
In 2011, Conway, her friends and former students created the Joan Conway Piano Scholarship
Fund at Hope College, which provides support to new students showing aptitude and
passion for piano. This — as well as the Harbor Humane Society in West Olive, Mich.
— are both suggested causes for donations to honor Conway’s legacy in lieu of flowers.
Conway’s full obituary can be viewed here.