Ellen Masaki, who taught the piano to thousands of Hawai'i children in a career spanning more than 60 years, died Monday after a battle with stomach cancer. She was 81.

"Without question she was the most influential piano teacher in Hawai'i," said Mark Wong, Honolulu Symphony Foundation board chairman and a former Masaki student.

Her students were among the best in Hawai'i, with many winning competitions and pursuing careers in music. Masaki also raised thousands of dollars for the symphony, providing players at fundraisers and organizing recitals to display her students' talents.

Ethel Iwasaki, a piano teacher at the Ellen Masaki School of Music near Ward Warehouse, said Masaki taught day and night, seven days a week and only stopped recently due to her illness.

Masaki was full of energy and appeared years younger than she was, which Iwasaki credited to her passion for teaching.

"She loved her students and they considered her more than a teacher," Iwasaki said. "She was more like their mother and grandmother and they loved being around the school and each other."

Masaki threw parties for her students and sponsored competitions among them, offering prizes as incentives, she said. She attended former students' concerts on the Mainland and in Japan and would escort students to competitions, Iwasaki said.

Wong said his lessons were at 7:15 on Sunday mornings. He remembered that as a new student he was terrified of Masaki because she was famous and known to take only good students, and he didn't want to fail.

"She was truly invested in each student," Wong said. "It wasn't just teaching them. She coached them. She became part of their lives and it was more than just your lesson."

On her 75th birthday Wong donated a concert piano to the Honolulu Symphony in honor of Masaki.

In 2000, Masaki was named teacher of the year by the Music Teachers National Association. She was also a 2007 Music Teachers National Association fellow.

Masaki served as National Guild of Piano Teachers' Association Hawaii chairwoman for more than 30 years. The Masaki Symphony Fund Drive has raised as much as $24,000 annually for the Honolulu Symphony Society, the MTNA Web site said.

In July, Masaki was in Kona preparing students for two recitals for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, said Karen Masaki, one of Ellen Masaki's two daughters.

"She was at the time struggling with fluid buildup in her lungs, had trouble breathing and had difficulty walking, so it was purely will and her love for her students and what she was doing, presenting the music to the public," Karen Masaki said. "It was her last concert."

Ellen Masaki was born June 6, 1928, in Kalihi and learned to play piano at the age of 5 by ear from her aunt. Two years later, she began lessons with Honolulu Symphony pianist James Gallet.

Both of Masaki's daughters, Karen and Nancy, learned to play the piano and music was always in the home, but she never pushed her girls to follow in her path, Karen Masaki said.

"She was such a force in our lives," Karen Masaki said. "She inspired us. ... She just supported whatever direction we wanted to move in."

Karen Masaki at one point was going to study piano at Oberlin in Ohio but switched to dance. Her sister Nancy Masaki Hathaway is a cellist with the Honolulu Symphony. Both are teachers in their respective fields.

Besides her daughters, Karen and Nancy, Ellen Masaki is survived by her brother, Ernest Kimura; sisters Mildred Oshiro and Lillian Nishi; and grandsons Scott and Logan Hathaway. Services are pending.