Teacher of Classical Piano Hits Right Notes at Dodgers Ballgame

What would it be like to play the organ before thousands of Dodger fans? Just ask Rhoda Tuit, of Santa Monica, who recently was granted that fantasy as part of the Dodgers’ “Think Blue Week.”

Each year the Los Angeles Dodgers sponsor a contest that gives fans the chance to live out their baseball dreams for a night. Last week, Tuit played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the traditional seventh-inning stretch. “I was really nervous before I got there,” she said. “But once I got there, it was a royal kick.”

Tuit, a piano teacher at Santa Monica College and a self-described baseball nut, learned of the contest, which included a category for organists, during a game last season. She won the contest based on a recorded tape of herself playing the organ and a letter telling why she should be considered for the position.

Tuit became a baseball fan about 12 years ago, she said. “I really like it because it is so lighthearted, contrary to piano,” she said. “Teaching classical piano is very serious and baseball is so unpredictable.”

Next year? She hopes to broadcast a Dodgers game in Spanish.

Santa Monica physician Richard Corlin has been elected vice speaker of the American Medical Assn.’s House of Delegates.

Corlin, who practices gastroenterology, is president-elect of the California Medical Assn. He also serves on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

The Los Angeles Conservancy recently recognized Lynn Kronzek with a special award for her book “Fairfax . . . A Home, A Community, A Way of Life.” In it, she chronicles the development of Los Angeles’ Jewish commercial district. She was honored at the organization’s annual Preservation Awards luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

She lives in Playa del Rey.

Ira Yellin has been elected president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

Yellin, who lives in Santa Monica, is president of the Yellin Co. in Los Angeles.

Dentist Joel Strom has been installed as the president of the Western Dental Society.

He has served as trustee for the California Dentists Assn. and is now a member of its Council of Legislation. Strom practices general dentistry in Century City and serves on the faculty of the USC School of Dentistry.

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