Melanie P. Bean

Melanie Phelps Bean

September 23, 1951- June 3, 2025

Melanie Bean was born September 23, 1951, three weeks late but waiting to be a Libra. She grew up in Kansas City and distinguished herself academically and musically at Southwest High School. She majored in piano performance at Stanford University where she also solidified her love of tennis and bicycling. Melanie earned her Masters in piano at Michigan University and then returned to the Bay area to study again with Adolph Baller. Melanie performed in San Francisco and Chicago before moving to New York, a city she called home. Playing chamber music and  accompaniment, Melanie made dear friends through music. She taught piano at the Hoff-Barthelson School and privately.

Melanie’s passion for the arts included acting, writing and composing. She trained with George DiCenzo, John Strasberg, Susan Cohen and Katharine Sergava. Her acting in theatre, television and independent film earned her Actors’ Equity and Screen Actors Guild membership. Melanie was a gifted writer and composer. Credits include Prospect Theater’s Musical Theater Lab Project: Souvenir Stories, participating in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, and having pieces published in Best Contemporary Monologues for Kids, ages 7-15, and Best 5-Minute Plays for Teens, by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. From her leading roles in high school musicals to creating the book, music and lyrics of original shows, Melanie found inspiration in musical theater.

Melanie had a gift for creating community spirit. She was a remarkable friend throughout her life. She made dozens of them at the Riverside Clay Tennis Association, a community tennis organization with over 1,000 members that maintained and operated the red clay public tennis courts on the Upper West Side where she lived. A long-time volunteer, gardener and board member, she was one of the organization's more influential presidents, guiding the RCTA through an important expansion. She also led the tenant’s association of her building through a very challenging period with great determination, grit and aplomb.

Melanie is predeceased by her parents Albert and Molly Bean and her brother David Bean. She is survived by her partner of 43 years, Ira Bauer, her brother Trey Bean, her sister Kim Bean Higgins, and eight nieces and nephews lucky enough to have an Aunt Mel. 

Melanie was a plant whisperer since childhood and she developed gardens around the Riverside tennis courts and in the backyard that she and Ira shared in Long Beach. Her musical “Yard Sale!” includes this song:

What would we do without gardens?

They take us out of time.

What would we do without gardens?

Back to a childhood rhyme.

Breathe it in; take a minute; let the rest fall away.

Let the colors come inside you and make a better day.

What would we do without gardens?

They show us something new.

What would we do without gardens?

Just look what they can do.

Forget the losses piling up like petals on the ground.

Instead be like the vine that climbs up– up and around.

What would we do without gardens?

They change our sense of place.

What would we do without gardens?

They add a touch of grace.

A celebration of Melanie’s life will take place at a later time.

Memorial donations may be made to : Junior Tennis Foundation

2500 Westchester Ave, Suite 106, Purchase, NY 10577,

or the American Red Cross or the Roger Federer Foundation.