Baiba Peelle

Baiba Nikiforovs Peelle was born on July 24, 1946 in Augsburg, Germany. Her parents, Anatolijs and Vera Nikiforovs, were refugees from the Russian invasion of Latvia in 1944. Baiba and her parents emigrated to the United States in 1950 and settled in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where her brother, Andris Nikiforovs was born. Baiba excelled at her studies and also at the piano. She won a number of local and regional piano competitions. While in high school, she started teaching piano students in her home; she remained a dedicated piano teacher all her life until she retired in 2019.

Baiba earned a B.A. in music from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio and an M.M. in Piano Performance at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL. Subsequently, she completed all the course work for a D.M.A. in Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music/CWRU. Subsequently she taught at:

Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C
Community Education Department, University of Minnesota
West Bank School of Music, also in Minneapolis, MN
Cleveland Music School Settlement, Cleveland, OH
Regina High School, South Euclid, OH
Notre Dame College, Cleveland, OH
Hochstein School of Music, Rochester, NY

In 2008, she began studies at Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, and received her M. Div. in 2011. She served as interim pastor at Trinity Covenant Church and as Associate Pastor at Park Ridge Free Methodist Church and Community of the Savior Free Methodist Church, all in Rochester, NY.

In 2010, she completed her chaplaincy internship and residency at Strong Memorial Hospital and served as chaplain there and at Unity Hospital until 2018.

The most important thing to Baiba was her family. She is survived by her husband, David, with whom she shared a love of music and the natural world, their son, Jonathan (Jill), grandchildren Eila, Morgan, and Bennett, her brother Andris Nikiforovs (Ruth Anne Goldberg), and sisters/brothers-in-law Kathy Douds, Karyl (Tony) Petruccione, Doug (Darla) Peelle, Karen (Tim) Stone, Tina Onion, and Derek Peelle, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. They will treasure her dedication, intentionality, sense of justice, and love for humanity.

As an alternative to flowers, donations can be made to
The Hochstein School of Music (specifying in memory of "Baiba Peelle")