Tribute to piano teacher in Cornwall Viola Nettle from Redruth

Viola Nettle, who was well-loved in Camborne and Redruth, as well as her pupils in Truro, passed away peacefully in her sleep at St Mary's Care Home, Streatham in South London on October 26.

The youngest daughter of a well-known shoe maker and repairer, she was born Viola Tregenza in Camborne in 1931, writes her son David.

Viola suffered from chronic asthma as a child and was eventually, in her early teens, prescribed a piano and piano lessons in order to while away the long periods her illness forced her to spend away from school.

She married Gerald Nettle of Redruth at the age of 19 and their early married years were spent in Prestea, West Africa (later Ghana) where Gerald, like many sons of Cornish tin miners before him, was to find ready employment in its extensive gold mines.

Returning to Redruth for the birth of her first son David in 1956, as a young mother she worked tirelessly at acquiring the piano diplomas necessary to achieve her ambition of starting out on her own teaching career.

She soon became active in the town's music-making as accompanist to the Redruth Amateur Dramatic Society's twice-yearly musical productions, and subsequently Gerald and both boys would join her, with her sons taking leading roles in Babes in the Wood and Oliver.

Terence, her second son, was born in 1963 and some years later, in the 70s, she expanded her musical activities and was appointed visiting piano teacher at Truro High School for Girls, as well as joining the musical staff at Truro School in the 1980s.

Viola pictured in 1998

By now both sons had flown the nest in order to pursue their advanced musical studies and professional careers in various parts of the world, and it was during this period that Viola took up the cello as well as choral conducting. She directed the Redruth Choral Society for many seasons and later, as a member of the U3A, becoming the well-loved conductor of their choral group.

Diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in her early seventies she relocated to London in 2010, after the death of her husband, in order to be closer to her sons, their spouses and her grandchildren.

Hundreds of pupils will remember Viola's dedication, insight, professionalism and guidance, as well as her smile, energy and enthusiasm – a lifetime spent tirelessly instilling the love of music and its power to change lives into countless numbers of both children and adults.

Although immensely proud of and attached to all the pupils she nurtured, she was equally insistent that those with special talent should further themselves at specialist music schools such as Wells Cathedral School, where many of her pupils received raining before moving on to music colleges and the wider world of professional music.

It seems hardly surprising that Viola should pass on her musical talents to her family, and every member has in fact become a musician.

David's international piano duo Nettle & Markham, with pianist Richard Markham, is currently celebrating 45 years of recordings and performances around the world and brother Terence plays the viola in English National Opera's orchestra, based in London's Coliseum. Meanwhile his wife Jo Marsh is a flautist in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and their son Thomas is presently studying conducting at the Norwegian Music Academy in Oslo, having spent his schooldays as a chorister in Westminster Abbey's Choir School and – like David and latterly Isabelle, Viola's granddaughter, before him – a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Viola will be equally missed by son-in-law Christo who has been involved in her day-to-day care for well over a decade.

; private funeral will take place in mid-November.