Esther M. Robbins Wideman, 81, church organist and music teacher

BACK IN the 1980s, City Hall workers and others in the vicinity could take their lunches to the nearby Arch Street Presbyterian Church and listen to Esther Wideman at the organ.

The once-a-week noon concerts were free and part of Esther's contribution to the cultural life of her adopted city. She was the organist and director of music at the church.

Esther's passion for the organ took her all over Europe, where she could listen to the music of famous organs, mostly in ancient churches, and get to play many of them herself.

She performed in numerous concerts in the Philadelphia region, not only on the organ but on the harpsichord and piano, playing a repertory that included English, French and Baroque music.

And she wasn't shy about bursting into a jazz solo when the spirit moved her.

Esther M. Robbins Wideman, a highly regarded music teacher who was born in a Cherokee Indian hospital in Tulsa, Okla., a child prodigy who began playing the xylophone and marimba she received as Christmas gifts and was giving piano concerts by age 16, died Oct. 7 of cancer. She was 81.

She and her late husband, Dr. James Wideman, a professor of neurophysiology at Thomas Jefferson University Medical School, restored their 1861 Victorian home in University City and were restoring an 1840 townhouse in Washington Square West.

Esther handled the artistic aspects of the restoration, discovering that she had an artistic bent. Her husband took on the muscle work, including refinishing furniture.

Esther was popular among a wide circle of friends, including musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra, for her musical dinner parties. During the restoration, she had installed a grand piano, harpsichord and 12-foot-high pipe organ in the music room.

She and her husband collected Victorian furniture early in their marriage and furnished their home with decorative pieces.

They also assisted in the maintenance and restoration of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church.

Esther and her husband came to Philadelphia in 1969 when he joined Jefferson's faculty. He died in 2009 at age 72.

Growing up in Tulsa, Esther took piano lessons and performed in concerts as a youngster. At 16, she enrolled at Pacific Union College in California's Napa Valley to study piano and organ performance.

She earned a master's degree in organ performance at the University of Michigan and later studied for a doctorate at Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

She and her husband met when he attended a concert at which she performed in Baltimore. They married in 1967. She was previously married to Donald Cupps.

Esther taught music at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and gave private lessons.

She spent many summers touring Europe with the American Guild of Organists and on her own, playing every organ she could find.

Esther was instrumental in working with the Chestnut Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church to install a J. W. Walker Tracker Organ from England.

She was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church.

In her retirement, Esther continued to perform in Philadelphia and Europe with Albert Falcove, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and former violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. They became engaged. He died last year at age 99.

She is survived by two daughters, Julene Martin-Morganelli and Julia B. Robbins; a sister, June Smith Davis, and two grandchildren.

Services: Requiem service at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 1625 Locust St. Friends may call at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Terranova Funeral Home, 1248 S. Broad St. Burial will be at Woodlands Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Mark's Episcopal Church.