Crowden Celebrates 40th Anniversary this Memorial Day Weekend 2024
May 25 Hertz Hall Concert features world premiere by Samuel Adams and illustrious Crowden alumni, faculty, and friends

11 March 2024, Berkeley, CA—A treasure-trove of the Bay Area’s homegrown classical music luminaries take the stage at Hertz Hall on Saturday, May 25, 2024, for Crowden’s 40th Anniversary Concert. Crowden, renowned as an innovative incubator of remarkable children, musicians, and composers, is culminating its year-long 40th anniversary celebration this Memorial Day weekend with the Anniversary Concert at Hertz Hall on May 25, 6:30pm, followed by a Reunion Brunch at Crowden the next day, May 26, 11am.

“Our 40th Anniversary Concert boasts an amazing list of performers spanning Crowden’s illustrious history, including globally acclaimed concert artist and pedagogue Nora Chastain, Pittsburg Symphony Concertmaster David McCarroll (‘99), stunning violinist Karla Donehew Perez (‘99) and her Grammy-nominated Catalyst Quartet, Menuhin Competition winner Kenneth Renshaw (‘08), Abby Rojansky (‘03) of the prestigious Verona Quartet, local favorite Friction Quartet, virtuoso pianist Audrey Vardanega (‘09), and acclaimed violinist Ariana Kim, among others,” shares Crowden Artistic Director Eugene Sor. “The future of music will be represented not only by our stellar young musicians and alumni, but Crowden composers as well. We are especially proud to present a world premiere and 40th anniversary commission by alum Samuel Adams (’00), and an already canon string quartet by fellow alum Gabriella Smith (’05)—both emerging composers currently receiving global attention as important new voices. It is also our honor to present our inspiring Crowden School musicians performing Four Traditional Piecesby Crowden’s 40th Anniversary Concert Honoree, incredible patron of the arts and transformational benefactor of Crowden, composer Gordon Getty.”

Crowden named Gordon Getty as its 40th Anniversary Concert Honoree in commemoration of Ann and Gordon Getty’s monumental extended relationship with Crowden. In 2021, the Crowden Board of Trustees established the Ann and Gordon Getty Fund with the couple’s $10 million donation, geared towards expanding access to the magic of a Crowden education. Crucial support from the Gettys over the course of Crowden’s history also helped enable the purchase of its historical landmark campus, and the founding of its John Adams Young Composers Program. The Gettys’ generosity to the Crowden community encompasses the young talent emerging over the decades—prominent Crowden alumni ranging from Adams and Smith to Kenneth Renshaw have been presented in concert in the Gettys’ home salon.

John Adams and Bonnie Hampton are Crowden’s 40th Anniversary Honorary Co-Chairs. Musical luminaries including Yo-Yo Ma, Esa Pekka Salonen, Frederica von Stade, Joshua Robison, and Michael Tilson Thomas (among many others) have joined Crowden’s 40th Anniversary Honorary Committee to support the Bay Area gem, which serves a combined audience of 8,000 Bay Area music learners with a rich array of workshops, classes, and concerts each year. Originally founded in 1983 as a middle school dedicated to improving the intellectual development and social-emotional lives of adolescents through music, the Crowden School remains the only school of its kind in the country. Today, it serves students in grades 3–8 with an inspiring, whole-child education rooted in the collaborative art of chamber music. “At the Crowden School, every day begins with music,” explains Head of School Dan Meyers. “This simple practice has powerful benefits for our students: activating both sides of their brains, inspiring their creative energy, and encouraging them to find resonance with each other. Then, students bring that engagement and excitement into their academic classrooms. Working collaboratively, Crowden School students use the process of inquiry and discussion to explore essential questions, design experiments, analyze literature, and discover the joys of learning across disciplines.”

Arches, Crowden School alumnus Samuel Adams’ new work for two violins and string orchestra, was commissioned in honor of Crowden’s 40th anniversary. “Arches is a new score that celebrates forty remarkable years of music-making at Crowden, remarks Adams. “I envisioned the energetic and kaleidoscopic music as a kind of bridge connecting the school’s past, present, and future. On the surface, the piece works like a Baroque “double” violin concerto, with violinists David McCarroll and Nora Chastain performing the leading roles. However, the work is scored in such a way that the musical ideas are passed around the multigenerational orchestra, creating a series of musical impulses that flow through the ensemble composed of faculty, alumni, and—most importantly—a wonderfully talented group of current students. It was a total joy to create, and I look forward to celebrating with the whole Crowden community this coming May.”

Tickets to Crowden’s 40th Anniversary Concert are available for purchase online at crowden.org/40. Tickets are $50, $35 for students/seniors, and $10 for youth ages 8-18. Limited premiere seats are available for $100 and include an invitation to an exclusive “Meet-the-Artists” reception at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club following the concert. Proceeds benefit Crowden’s educational programs and scholarships.

ABOUT CROWDEN:
After watching her young students grow exhausted and overburdened by school, practice, chores, and countless other activities, Scottish violinist Anne Crowden (1928 to 2004) had an audacious vision of a school that would provide a supportive environment for middle school (those most formative years) musicians by incorporating music into the daily curriculum.

In 1983, she and Piero Mancini (an Italian ex-monk and landless count turned educator), opened the nonprofit Crowden School, with just thirteen students, facing unknown challenges but driven by Anne’s clear, uncompromising vision. It was the first school of its kind in the nation.

Crowden Board Vice Chair Deborah O’Grady, who also served a pivotal role in Crowden’s history as a board member in the 90s, recalls the organization’s development. “In the spring of 1997, my husband, John Adams, graciously agreed to help Crowden produce a 50th birthday concert in his honor. This was a real breakthrough for us, bringing in an audience who we felt needed to know about Crowden. We didn’t have to say much to convince people such as Gordon Getty of the caliber of this school after they witnessed the absolutely riveting performance by the Crowden orchestra of John’s Shaker Loops for string orchestra. The very next week, Mr. Getty agreed to visit the school.” By 1998, with the support of a capital campaign launched by a significant challenge grant from the Gettys and the Bernard E. & Alba Within Charitable Foundation, Crowden had moved into its current location, the historical landmark former Ruth Acty School (known then as the Jefferson School) building in North Berkeley, and greatly expanded its educational offerings beyond the school to serve Bay Area music learners of all ages and levels.

After the century’s turn, during the tenure of Director Emeritus Doris Fukawa, Crowden began to focus on the accessibility of classical music, creating innovative programming to simplify musical study for all ages. Its annual free Community Music Day, now in its 24th year, has given literally thousands of Bay Area children their first hands-on experiences with musical instruments. Very First Concerts was co-created by Crowden and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra to expose wriggly toddlers to the joys of live classical music, in a format that is easy for even the youngest listeners (and not embarrassing for their parents). The John Adams Young Composers Program, founded in honor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, himself father to two Crowden alums, was created in part to solve one of the largest problems young composers face—not getting to hear what their music actually sounds like—by giving the remarkable opportunity of professional musicians performing student works. (Today, the program’s vibrant artistic community of living composers includes alumni Dylan Mattingly, Gabriella Smith, Matthew Cmiel, Preben Antonsen, Lauren Vanderveldt, Anaís Azul, Theodore Haber, and more). Similarly, Crowden’s popular Chamber Music for Adults program makes playing in small ensembles easy for busy adult amateurs by handling all of the considerable logistics that come with finding other players with compatible levels, schedules, and instruments needed to play chamber music.

The school itself now boasts several generations of alumni living across the globe, pursuing interests and careers of all kinds and fields, from science and medicine to the arts. The ever-growing numbers of alumni now making waves in classical and new music represent an incredible contribution to contemporary classical and instrumental music—especially for an elementary and middle school. Notable alumni include Berlin Philharmonic Co-Concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley (’97), 2024 Grammy-nominated and Chamber Music America Album of the Year-winning Karla Donehew Perez (’99) of the Catalyst Quartet (both performing in the Anniversary Concert, and globally acclaimed composer Eugene Birman (’01), who has composed for the likes of Berlin Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic, and BBC Singers.

From its first audacious founding—Anne Crowden called herself a “born-again chamber musician”—through today, chamber music lies at the heart of all of Crowden’s educational programs and concerts, including the seed that sowed it all back in 1983, the school. By centering the collaborative art of chamber music as an educational model across all subjects and disciplines, Crowden is transforming learning itself, continuing its tradition as a unique Berkeley institution for 40 years and forward.

Learn how music is changing everything at https://www.crowden.org.