July 3, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Obituaries

Rita M. Cartelli

Rita M. Cartelli, 64, of Chestnut Hill, a retired language teacher, died June 28 of cancer at the Hill at Whitemarsh.

Ms. Cartelli retired in 2006 from Lower Merion High School where she had taught Spanish and German for 32 years. Earlier she had taught at Lower Merion Middle School and at Harriton High School.

During the 1960s, Ms. Cartelli had worked at the Yarway Corporation in Chestnut Hill, but left to attend Temple University where she graduated summa cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and German. She also held a master’s degree in German from Villanova University and studied abroad in Italy and Germany.

She was born in Chestnut Hill, the daughter of the late Pietro and Rose Cartelli, and attended Our Mother of Consolation School and Cardinal Dougherty High School. She was long active in the Chestnut Hill community.

Ms. Cartelli spoke fluent Italian, Spanish and German and traveled extensively throughout Europe. She also enjoyed painting and was an avid gardener and environmentalist.

She is survived by sisters Alessandra Cartelli and Louise Viglianese.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 2, at Holy Cross Church, 154 E. Mt. Airy Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119. Relatives and friends may call at 9 a.m. at the church.

Memorial contributions may be made to Holy Cross Church.

Bruce E. Montgomery

Bruce Eglinton Montgomery

Bruce Eglinton Montgomery, 81, of Chestnut Hill, longtime director of the Gilbert & Sullivan Players of Philadelphia and former director of musical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, died June 21 at his summer home in Spruce Head, Maine.

Before retiring from Penn in 2000, Mr. Montgomery was head of as many as 10 musical groups at the university, including the Penn Glee Club, the Mask & Wig Club, the University Band and the Penn Singers, a group he continued to direct until his death.

Mr. Montgomery directed Penn’s Glee Club for 44 years, writing, directing, choreographing and conducting its performances on world tours. He recounted these experiences in a memoir, Brothers, Sing On: My Half-Century Around The World With The Penn Glee Club, published in 2005.

Mr. Montgomery also was the director of the Gilbert & Sullivan Players of Philadelphia, a group founded by his father, operatic tenor James Montgomery. When his father died in 1955, he took over as director and led the Players for three decades, mounting more than 65 productions and performing leading comedic roles in each of the 14 Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

He later served as stage director for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Chester County from 1987 to 2007.

In addition to his roles as an artistic and musical director, Mr. Montgomery was a painter, a poet, a composer, a lyricist, an author, a choral arranger and a conductor. His works have been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and many other groups. The music he wrote for Gilbert and Sullivan’s Thespis in the 1950s, for which most of Sullivan’s original score was lost, was produced on several occasions, including the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, in 2000. 

After his 1963 Irish folk opera, Spindrift, was performed by the Penn Players, he wrote the music and lyrics for a hit 1964 off-Broadway show, The Amorous Flea, that received rave reviews in the New York papers.

After his long and distinguished service to Penn, the university renamed the studio theater at the Annenberg Center the “Bruce Montgomery Theater.” The newly renovated theater was unveiled at a gala celebration on May 10 of this year, featuring live performances of his original compositions.

Mr. Montgomery was a longtime member of the Orpheus Club, where he was named an honorary member for his appearances as guest conductor, and served on the boards of both the Theodore H. Presser and the Edwin B. Garrigues foundations.

Mr. Montgomery was a graduate of Germantown Friends School and Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., which awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in 2005. The following year he was named “Man of the Year” by the Friars Club of Philadelphia.

Burial will be private, and a memorial celebration of his life is planned for early fall in Philadelphia. The date will be announced on Mr. Montgomery’s Web site, www.montyart.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Glee Club Endowment Fund #402396, c/o Platt Student Performing Arts House, 160 Stouffer Commons, 3702 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA  19104.