Geri Allen, 60, jazz pianist, Pitt educator

Geri Allen, 60, a world-renowned jazz pianist who had been serving as the University of Pittsburgh's director of jazz studies, died Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Ms. Allen succumbed to cancer at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Eastern Regional Medical Center, where she was surrounded by family members.

Ms. Allen came to Pitt in 2013 with a vision of shaping the university's jazz-studies program. She took over after director Nathan Davis retired.

According to colleagues, she was never overbearing in her approach. A modest woman who listened to others, Ms. Allen saw qualities in people that they could not always see in themselves.

"Geri was a magnificent jazz pianist who was warm and kind and made people believe they could do what she knew they could do," said Kathy Humphrey, Pitt's senior vice chancellor for engagement and chief of staff. "Her spirit was just so giving and just so gracious for the amount of talent that she had."

Those characteristics endeared Ms. Allen to students and colleagues alike.

Humphrey said she wasn't a jazz lover before she met Ms. Allen. But when Ms. Allen asked her to sing a jazz song at Pitt's annual jazz seminar, Ms. Humphrey couldn't refuse.

"I was like, 'Geri, I don't sing jazz,' " Humphrey recalled. "And she's like, 'I've got this song that I know you can do. I want you to do it.' I thought, 'This is not what I do.' "

Ms. Allen persuaded Humphrey to sing the song - "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" by Billy Strayhorn - and it went well.

"She could make you believe you could do what even you didn't think you could do, and she would prove it to you that you could do it," Humphrey said. "I think that's the true mark of a teacher - to help you understand what your capabilities are and what you're able to do."

Ms. Allen was already an accomplished jazz pianist by the time she arrived at Pitt.

According to her biography on the university's website, she received the first Lady of Soul award for jazz and was the first woman and youngest person to win the Danish "Jazz Par Prize." Her work was featured in the Lisa Gay Hamilton Peabody Award-winning film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks and on Andy Bey's Grammy-nominated American Song.

Ms. Allen was nominated in 2015 for a Grammy in the best historical album category for coproducing The Complete Concert by the Sea, an expanded version of jazz pianist Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea.

"The one thing she told me was that she lived to play jazz, to play, to interact, to be creative," said Deane Root, chairman of Pitt's department of music. "And that's what she needed to survive."

Root, Ms. Allen's faculty mentor since she began at Pitt, said that a memorial for Ms. Allen may be held in the fall and that the university will dedicate its annual jazz seminar and concert to her.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.