Page One

Anne Crowden, the beloved music teacher who founded the Crowden School in Berkeley in 1983, died Monday morning in her birthplace of Edinburgh, Scotland, of pancreatic cancer. She was 76. Berkeley composer John Adams, in a 1997 tribute, said that Crowden used “her enormous energy and powers of persuasion to create a place where children from all economic backgrounds could immerse themselves in music while enjoying the highest levels of academic schooling.” A violinist herself, passionate about chamber music, she started her school with eleven junior high school children in a church basement. 

The Crowden School now fills a former public school at 1745 Rose St., and many of its graduates have gone on to distinguished musical careers. A Musical Reverie at the school, intended to produce a recorded tribute to send to Crowden in Edinburgh, was already scheduled, prior to her death, for March 28. Organizer Erika Miranda called it “a gathering in the tradition Anne liked best.” It will go on as planned at 5 p.m., with rehearsals at 4 p.m. Anne’s favorite music will be combined with anecdotes from those who attend, and the resulting DVD will be sent to Deidre Cooper, her daughter, who is a violinist in London. Colleagues, students, friends and admirers are also planning other memorials, with dates, places and times to be announced later, according to Crowden School Board Chair Sallie Arens. 

›