Ivalyn Law Benfield

Ivalyn Leatha Law Biloff

1906 - 1983

Ivalyn Biloff, a contralto, taught voice and directed the choir at Pacific Union College in the 1930s and 1940s. In her years at PUC and afterwards as a Seventh-day Adventist minister's wife, she sang often to great acclaim, featured as a soloist with the choirs while at PUC and at important campus and, later, church events, including a General Conference Session in the 1950s.

Law was born in Southern China, the oldest of five children, to Dr. Law (Keem), a native of the country, and Edith Miller Law, who were serving as missionaries in that country.¹ Her father was a singer and her mother, a nurse and pianist who had graduated from Battle Creek College. She began music study at age eight with organ lessons from her mother.

In 1919, her father died in China and the family returned to the U.S. Six years later, Ivalyn entered PUC, where she completed a two-year normal course. Choir director George Greer encouraged her to continue for two more years and complete a music diploma.

She started to teach voice lessons when she completed the music diploma in1929, and, in 1937, became director of the choral and vocal program, continuing in that position for seven years. During that time she married voice student Rueben Biloff, who upon graduation became a Seventh-day Adventist minister.

Ivalyn was a featured soloist with the PUC choirs under the direction of George Greer, her mentor, studying with him for ten years. She assumed direction of the vocal/choral program when he accepted a position at Washington Missionary College, now Columbia Union College. Even though following an unusually popular director, she was equal to the challenge and directed the choirs for the next eight years.

Biloff completed a B.A. degree in music at PUC in 1939. She later did graduate study in music at the University of California at Berkeley and at Northwestern University. She performed regularly, assisting her husband in pastoral and evangelistic work, and sang extensively throughout the U.S. as a soloist in recitals, concerts, and oratorio presentations. She sang the contralto solos in the Messiah scores of times and conducted eight performances of the work.

Biloff was also featured as a singer on two albums, Beautiful Hills and When God Is Near, released by Chapel Records. The song The Beautiful Hills became a signature work. In 1989, a nephew, Roger Thiesen, prepared and released a memorial tape of her singing, edited from her Chapel recordings and other sources.

Go, Heralds of Salvation, a record of the Bay Area Symphonic Choir in San Francisco, under her direction, was also released by Chapel Records. In 1966, a recording of the Ivalyn Biloff Trio, which included Biloff, Alga Aaby, and Lavon Tryon, accompanied by Bernice White, was released as a custom recording.

She regularly featured music by Adventist composers. She and her choirs performed works by Kathleen Joyce, well known Welsh contralto regularly featured on the BBC; Marjorie Lewis Lloyd; Herbert Work; and her uncle, George B. Miller, among others.

Observations about her singing included comments such as "Her singing touches my heart" and "When Ivalyn sings, the Angels listen." Another music teacher, Sister M. Cecelia, on hearing one of Biloff's performances of the Messiah, wrote, "I enjoyed the concert very much, especially your conducting. I have been in the music field for over 40 years as a director and as an auditor of many concerts. Your directing was all that one could wish. There were no unnecessary gestures or [distracting] mannerisms. . . . When I returned from the concert I sang your praises to the Sisters who did not attend . . . I do hope I have the privilege and pleasure of attending another concert under your direction."

Biloff not only enjoyed a reputation as a fine musician but also was known as a considerate, kind, and humble person. She sought to glorify God with her music and lived by the motto "Sing a Message."

^{1 Ivalyn's parents were the fifth family sent by the church to serve in China. Her father, who was born in China in 1867, had come to the U.S. at age 15 to live with relatives and pursue an education. He became a member of the church while living with them and later attended Healdsburg College, forerunner of Pacific Union College. He graduated from California Medical School in 1900 and began practicing medicine in Fresno. Four years later, he married Edith Miller and they volunteered to go as missionaries to his homeland. They arrived there in the summer of 1905 and a year later their first child, Ivalyn, was born. Her father died unexpectedly In 1917. His widow and their three daughters and two sons returned to the U.S. While known as Charlie Keem in his earlier years in the U.S., at the time of his death he was known as Dr. Law.
Obituary, unknown source and date; Pacific Union College yearbooks; Interviews, Roger Thiesen, Mrs. Hagen Biloff, August 2008; Record Jacket Liners, Go, Heralds of Salvation and When God is Near, Chapel Records, ST 4015 and LP 5022, respectively; Flyer for compilation tape; R&H, 21 August 1917 (Dr. Law Keem).

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