Music student dies at home over Thanksgiving

IU graduate student Peter Moench died Thursday while home for Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City. \nHe was 23.\nBorn and raised in Salt Lake City, Moench came to IU as a freshman and earned his Bachelor of Music with an emphasis in cello through the Jacobs School of Music. He began his graduate studies this summer at IU, also in cello.\n"He started studying cello at the age of 3, and he continued doing that through his first year in the master's degree program," his father Louis \nMoench said. "He was very \nexcited to go to Indiana."\nMoench studied cello with Emilio Colón, an associate professor of music at the School of Music, one of the faculty members his father said he admired.\n"He and I began to get closer this particular semester," Colón said. "We started talking about other things other than cello. He was a very concerned individual about the world."\nLouis Moench said music was a very important aspect of Peter's life, but his passions did not stop there.\n"He was a seeker of truth in a number of different areas," he said. "He was very concerned about the well-being of other people."\nLouis Moench said Peter enjoyed electronic music and spinning techno records on twin turntables, reading, writing, discussing politics, the environment and issues of health, and he was a student of Japanese.\n"He was a very conscientious student," Colón said. "He was always seeking for more knowledge. Slightly shy personality, but very warm and giving."\nThomas Wieligman, an administrator in the Jacobs School of Music, said he recently put Moench in a leadership role in orchestra and Moench, in his quiet way, humbly accepted the position.\n"He was extremely dependable, extremely loyal and extremely cooperative," said Wieligman. "I have no doubts he would have been a great contributor to the profession."\nA viewing for Peter Moench will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Wasatch Lawn Mortuary, 3401 S. Highland Drive in Salt Lake City and at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Mount Olympus 10th Ward Chapel, 3610 E. 3510 S. Funeral services will begin at noon Tuesday, and the burial will follow in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.