Rebekah Bevilacqua Kuzma, a singer and songwriter who was an indelible presence on many Vashon Island stages, died on Oct. 16, at her home on the island. She was 51.

Her death was a suicide, according to her husband, Jonathan Kuzma, who said the medical examiner’s office had not yet determined the exact substances that caused her death.

Rebekah — whose powerful soprano could reach for the emotive heights in Celtic, rock, folk, blues and sacred songs — was known in recent years for her work with Saint Ophelia, an alternative rock and folk band.

With island singer/songwriter Joseph Panzetta, she formed the five-piece band in 2017, fronting it along with Panzetta.

The band primarily played Panzetta’s original songs but also brought audiences to their feet with other music that showcased Rebekah’s ability to transform familiar standards into startling, genre-bending surprises.

The group’s 2018 album, “Saint Ophelia,” included Rebekah’s inspired cover of “Nothing Not Nearly,” a love song by one of her favorite artists and inspirations, Laura Marling. A second album, “Love is the Crown,” released in 2022, included her own searing, complex and deeply personal poetic anthem, “Adrift.” It was the first song she ever wrote, said Jonathan.

Rebekah’s death has brought deep sorrow to her family, friends and collaborators.

In a social media post on Oct. 30, Jonathan said he had come to believe, too late, that Rebekah’s turbulent transition to menopause, for which she had gone untreated, had contributed to the mental health crisis that ended her life.

In the post, he described the joy and abundance Rebekah had brought into the world, not only through her music but also as the mother of their six surviving children. But he also described a different side of Rebekah that was unknown to many on Vashon, and why he believed this part of her psyche had suddenly tipped toward grievous self-harm.

“Life for Rebekah had always been a struggle,” Jonathan wrote. “For the 30 years I had known her, she was continually plagued by fears and doubts. She never felt secure in her worth, no matter how much love she received, no matter how much she achieved. I imagine that the hormonal crash of transition to perimenopause gave her a nudge into psychosis. The things she valued most in life lost meaning.”

He urged all women experiencing worsening depression, suicide ideation, or other mental health challenges during menopause to tell others and seek immediate help, as he wished Rebekah had done.

Remembering Rebekah’s musical life, many of her musical collaborators spoke of her boundless creativity and generous spirit.

In rehearsals, Panzetta said, Rebekah was quick to offer insights and suggestions that helped shape and refine his songwriting. “Nine times out of 10, I’d say, ‘you are absolutely right,’” he said.

And onstage, Panzetta said, Rebekah always mesmerized Saint Ophelia’s audiences in the way she seemed to channel the deepest messages of the band’s music.

“Her voice was so beautiful and stunning and had such an incredible range of emotion,” he said.

Rebekah was also a choir member and cantor at Vashon’s St. John Vianney Church. But her work as a cantor was a rare example of her performing solo, said Jonathan, describing how, on secular stages, she always leaned on working with others.

Her many musical comrades on Vashon included singer and songwriter Jennifer Stills, Celtic and island folk artist Kat Eggleston, musician and teacher Andy James, and her Saint Ophelia bandmate, pedal steel guitarist Dan Tyack, with whom she filmed and posted deeply heartfelt songs of comfort during the COVID pandemic.

“She was a walking, talking masterpiece,” said Stills, recalling Rebekah’s friendship, vocal gifts and the intricate harmonies they achieved together. “I’m going to carry her with me forever in my music.”

Eggleston recalled performing with Rebekah and other local female singers in a Simon and Garfunkel tribute evening at Seattle’s Town Hall in 2015 — but said she had made it a condition of her participation that Rebekah would be the one to sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

As sung by Rebekah, she said, the difficult song would be technically perfect, but also as glorious and heartbreaking as she knew it could be. And Rebekah’s Town Hall performance had proved her right.

“I really came to see her as one of the best singers I knew, anywhere,” said Eggleston.

Rebekah was born on December 1, 1972, in Portland, Oregon, the second of two daughters to Jack and Judy Bevilacqua. The family lived in Gresham, Oregon, for most of Rebekah’s childhood.

Her upbringing was shaped both by her parents’ deep Christian faith, and the family’s devotion to making music together. As a child, Rebekah avidly learned to play the mandolin, and then tenor guitar — instruments she continued to study, practice and play throughout her lifetime.

Her extraordinary vocal talent was apparent from the start.

“Rebekah had a big voice at an early age — and singing was more like her native tongue and her best means of communicating her equally big and passionate heart,” said her mother, Judy Bevilacqua, adding that her daughter had, throughout her life, brought exuberance, joy, creative energy and compassion to her family and the world.

Rebekah’s musical training came through her embrace of the choir program of Gresham High School, as well as continued study with various music teachers over the years, most prominently Jan DeWeese, of Portland.

Rebekah and Jonathan met in 1994, in Gresham, shortly after Jonathan graduated from Gonzaga University, and while Rebekah was still living in her parents’ home after a brief stint at Mt. Hood Community College. At that time, she was working as a barista, and performing traditional Irish music with a small group.

The couple married just over a year later, continuing to live in Gresham, as Jonathan pursued a career as a patina artist, specializing in complex colored finishes for bronze sculptures and other metals.

Four years after their wedding, their home began to bloom with new life — the couple’s first four children were born in quick succession between 1999 and 2005.

In 2006, Rebekah converted to and embraced Catholicism.

Unimaginable tragedy struck the family in 2009, when their fifth child, Matteo, died at the age of only five months after suffocating in a type of bed known as a baby hammock.

The deep sorrow of Matteo’s death never left Rebekah, said Jonathan. But one year later, she gave birth again, to twin boys.

Seeking a fresh start, Jonathan and Rebekah moved with their family to Vashon shortly after the birth of the twins, where Rebekah found a community that welcomed her large family. After many fallow years musically, the island also provided fertile ground for her artistic rebirth and evolution.

Her life, according to her husband, was marked by her desire for abundance in all aspects of life, resulting in the many children she brought into the world, avid enthusiasms which could give her tireless energy, and an endless quest for beauty.

“She wanted to see beauty around her, and share it with the world,” Jonathan shared in a remembrance he had written in preparation for Rebekah’s funeral Mass. “Her singing was the epitome of this.”

Describing her remarkable voice, he wrote: “When she sang Irish ballads, you felt power rising up from the earth one moment, maternal and strong, and then felt the floating of a falling feather the next moment, childlike and fragile.”

But Rebekah’s mental health challenges, which stealthily worsened this fall, were also an ongoing fact of her existence, Jonathan wrote.

“Rebekah was haunted by the notion that she was unloved, unwanted, a burden,” he said. “I bless all who poured love into her life, especially those who knew her Sisyphean struggle.”

Speaking of how she hoped her daughter would be remembered, Judy Bevilacqua said, “All the best parts of her — as light and energy beam, as golden-voiced, as a loving and loyal human being, and a mom who adored her husband and family above all.”

Rebekah is survived by her husband Jonathan; her children, Giacomo, Luca, Mia Giovanna, Gianpaolo, Niccolo and Teodoro; her parents Jack and Judy Bevilacqua; and her sister Gina Bevilacqua.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at St. John Vianney Catholic Church on Vashon, with a reception and memorial to follow at 1 p.m., at Camp Sealth. A burial service after the Mass will be for family and invited friends.

There will also be a tribute and music event to celebrate Rebekah’s life on her birthday, Dec. 1, from 2-4 p.m. at Vashon Center for the Arts.

Donations to support the Kuzma family can be made at tinyurl.com/KuzmaFamily.

Resources

Help is available if you or someone you know is in crisis.

Dial 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline, which provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, and prevention and crisis resources. You can also call 1-866-427-4747, a 24-hour, toll-free, telephone hotline for immediate, confidential assistance for those in distress in the King County area.

Vashon Youth and Family Services offers counseling and other resources. Contact the organization at 206-463-5511.