Exuberant choral music prof’s baton quiet

By KYLE MUNSON • November 7, 2010

Cedar Rapids, Ia. — Coe College senior Janet Stone’s mellifluous
soprano rang out Thursday with the aria “Ah! I Want to Live” from
Charles Gounod’s 19th century French opera version of “Romeo and
Juliet.”

The song’s youthful joy belies how we all know Shakespeare’s
romantic tragedy ends: the suicides of its title characters.

To have seen Richard P. Hoffman conduct a choir with exuberant
passion – throwing his entire body into the rhythm, sweating
profusely, surrounded by friends and fellow musicians – also stands
in stark contrast to how his life ended, by his own hand,
alone.

Hoffman, 61, began teaching at Coe in 1976. Stone was among his
current students. He was arguably the most visible face of choral
music for decades in the Cedar Rapids metro – in community theaters
and churches, as well as on this campus of 1,300 students. His
death has left the local arts community trying to come to terms
with the sudden loss of a larger-than-life figure.

Hoffman was found dead Oct. 27 in his car in the garage of his
ranch home several miles away in Marion. The Linn County medical
examiner ruled the death a suicide by asphyxiation because of
carbon monoxide inhalation.