Excerpted from Strings Magazine, November/December 1999, No. 82

The Crowden School

Building an education on chamber music

By Lily O’Brien

The minute you walk into the Crowden School, you know that this is not an ordinary middle school. Instrument cases are strewn about in the lobby and lively groups of kids are clustered in corners engaged in discussions, sitting on the floor working on projects, or busily coming and going from the many nooks and crannies of the building. Music can be heard drifting in from any number of rooms, forming a pleasant backdrop to this bustling scene. The place is a busily buzzing hive of activity and energy, calmly and carefully looked after by its queen bee, Anne Crowden.

Located in Berkeley, California, the school was established in 1983 by Crowden, an internationally renowned Scottish violinist who is passionate about chamber music. Starting with only 11 students and little more than a dream and desire, the school has gained international recognition, including the admiration and respect of the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin, who was the honorary president of its board of directors.

The focus of the school is chamber music, but it also prides itself on an excellent and highly regarded academic program that includes math, English, European history, foreign language, music theory, music history, and physical education. In addition to the regular day school, the campus is home to the Crowden Center for Music in the Community (CCMC), an outreach program offering numerous after-school, weekend, and summer classes at an affordable rate for toddlers through high-schoolers.

This year, the Crowden School has been celebrating its 16th anniversary with a number of major changes. In the shadow of the millennium, the school has moved to a larger facility, has expanded its academic and outreach programs, and is currently grooming a new director to take over in the fall of 2000.

The current school year has already begun in the new location on Berkeley’s historic Jefferson School campus, which marks a big shift from Crowden’s former rented space in a small church. The school has also added a fourth and a ninth grade to the existing fifth-through-eighth-grade levels. In the past year, enrollment in the day school has grown from 44 to 67 students, and the CCMC has increased its enrollment from 250 to 400 students. The school is blossoming, and if you spend some time there, it is very easy to understand why.

This particular morning there is a serious rehearsal going on in preparation for a big annual concert the following week. Entering the auditorium, one is immediately engaged. The student orchestra is deeply engrossed in a difficult piece by local composer Lou Harrison. Leading the orchestra is guest conductor Ben Simon, the Crowden School’s new associate director.

The orchestra is doing a tremendous job keeping up with the frantic pace of the music, and as the rhythmic momentum builds, it is hard to believe that this is a group of young music students, not a professional symphony orchestra. Anne Crowden wanders in to observe. "How is the balance?" asks Simon, stopping the group. She approaches the podium and they confer. Another teacher sitting in the audience adds some comments. Then the baton is raised once more and they are back to serious practice.

Every student at the Crowden School must play a stringed instrument. Two hours every morning are devoted to musical practice and ensemble playing or to chorus, culminating in monthly performances as well as an annual spring concert, opera and drama performances, and participation in Berkeley’s Junior Bach Festival. Not only do students perform music by well-known composers, but many compose original works that are showcased at these concerts, as well as by other prestigious performing groups. In addition, the school’s music-theory program culminates each year with a performance dedicated to student compositions, many of which have won national awards.

Anne Crowden, who describes herself as a born-again chamber musician, has a sparkle in her eye and an energetic gait, in spite of her 70-plus years. Her somewhat stern and conservative appearance belies her keen sense of humor, charm, and warmth. She has traveled the world performing with many prestigious groups, including the Edinburgh String Quartet and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, and as a featured soloist in Europe and in the San Francisco Bay Area. A resident of the United States since 1965, she has performed locally as a soloist and chamber player and has been a member of the faculty of Stanford University, Sonoma State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the University of California at Davis and at Berkeley.

Although Crowden has enjoyed a successful career as a professional musician, she asserts that the most rewarding part of her musical life has been teaching. For many years, most of her students were between eight and 18 years old, and she observed that children at this age, although enthusiastic about music, had little or no time to practice outside of school due to academic or family pressures. Following the example of several European schools, including the Menuhin, Purcell, and St. Mary’s, Crowden decided that America, and specifically Berkeley, was ready for something new.

It took two full years for her to realize her dream. Learning as she went, she found a space (rented from the University Christian Church in Berkeley), hired an academic director, established nonprofit status, recruited a board of directors, and convinced a handful of skeptical parents to send their kids to her school. The task would have been daunting for many, but once you meet Crowden and get a sense of her passion for teaching chamber music, you begin to understand how she did it.

Crowden’s vision for the school was to create an environment where musically gifted children could develop their abilities and talents in conjunction with a well balanced, interesting, and innovative academic program. "The key is being interested in something and doing it every day," she says. "Music is the best tool for learning, absolutely, because it takes everything. It takes coordination, it takes brains, it takes heart, and it takes a collective effort. When two seven-year-olds who don’t come from a particularly musical background begin trying to play a duet, it takes three months to put the duet together. But the next time, it will take a month, and then two weeks."

Piero Mancini, the school’s academic director, strongly agrees that this intense musical communication transfers into all areas of learning. The son of a count, Mancini is originally from the countryside in Tuscany, Italy. His remarkable and diverse background includes several years as a monk, an M.A. in Theology and a master’s degree in Italian Literature and Art History, and work in the fields of his father’s vineyard. Tall, slim, and bearded, with sparkling eyes, a spring in his step, and a magnificent eloquence ornamented with a lilting Italian accent, Mancini’s charm and warmth conjure the image of a kindly pied piper.

Prior to coming to the Crowden School, Mancini had been teaching Renaissance history and art and living in Florence, Italy, with his family. He had been thinking of emigrating to the United States, so when a neighbor told him that her good friend Anne Crowden had a job opening, he phoned her immediately. Ten days later, in February 1983, he flew to the Bay Area to meet her. Mancini was charmed by Crowden and found that her dream of a school based on music and humanities that would help children discover themselves felt like a good fit for him, as well has for his wife (who now teaches violin at Crowden) and their children. Based on this meeting, Mancini and his family moved to Berkeley to help start the school. With no formal experience as school administrators, Mancini and Crowden learned everything from the ground up, which required extensive research. They discovered that there was a lot of room for creativity in the school’s curriculum, as long as they followed California’s basic guidelines.

"What we wanted to give [the students] was a sound academic background, not just music," says Mancini. "And I think that works. There are things you learn by sight-reading a piece that carry on to mathematics, like the lengths of the notes—creating a whole gymnastics of the mind."

Part of Mancini’s creative approach to teaching is to use period texts instead of 20th-century textbooks. While the kids were studying the history of Rome, Mancini brought in some of Julius Caesar’s own writings so the kids could get an authentic sense of the times. Because the quality of the academic program is so highly valued, teachers are carefully chosen for their expertise in their subjects. For example, only native or exceptionally fluent speakers are hired to teach the language classes.

Once a year, the students take a national exam to see how they compare academically. Mancini proudly reports that the students generally score in the upper ten percent. As a result, a high percentage of the student body is accepted into very competitive local high schools, private schools, conservatories, and universities.

Chamber music as the central focus, however, is what makes this school so unusual. The communication, discipline, and collaboration required for this kind of music helps the students both musically and socially. Sitting in on a rehearsal for a string quartet, I am struck by how relaxed, friendly, and mature these kids are. They are playing Mozart and after the first movement, they stop to discuss the result. The dialogue is relaxed and noncompetitive, with the goal clearly being a combined effort to improve. In a documentary (The Crowden School) produced by British film makers Robin Plant and Cassius Rayner, one student captures the essence of this process when he reveals that he hadn’t liked one of his fellow students until they played chamber music together.

The process is nurtured by Anne Crowden. When she walks in on this rehearsal, she asks to hear it again. In her firm but gentle and slightly teasing manner, she fine-tunes the quartet. "Can you keep your bow on the strings more?" she asks one of the players. She then conducts with wide sweeping gestures, becoming totally immersed in the music and using her entire body to emphasize the phrases.

It is this kind of personal attention that has earned her the respect and admiration of her students. And for Crowden, the satisfaction has always been in seeing children grow through their music. "You watch one kid turn a corner and give a fantastic performance, and you’re happy. That’s it, you have given them life and you have helped give them something that can never be taken away from them, an inner strength."

La Bria Bonet, a violist at the school, feels that Crowden has made a profound impact on her development. "Anne has an amazing way of going about telling you how to do something, and then it’s almost impossible to do it wrong," says Bonet. "She’s tough, but she’s not a dictator." Bonet was originally a cello player, but Crowden convinced her to switch to viola. Bonet says it is the best decision she could have made. "I think I have come so far," she says, "not only on my approach to the viola, but in my overall musicality."

Karla Donehew, one of the top violinists at Crowden, says she appreciates the mindset throughout the school. "[It] has great academics and everyone is happy," she declares. "You know everyone, even in different grades, and everybody likes everybody else."

This family atmosphere extends not only to kids and faculty, but to office staff, parents, and board members (many of whom are parents of students). Everyone seems to be strongly dedicated to the school and to maintaining its unique spirit.

Thomas Florin, whose daughter Naomi is in the fourth grade, is retired and volunteers his time every day at the school as a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything from answering telephones to distributing music to helping students find their classrooms. He has watched his daughter change from introvert to extrovert while under the influence of the Crowden spell, and he’s felt their father-daughter bond deepen. "My daughter is really loving classical music," he says, "and so am I."

Joan Balter, a violin maker in Berkeley, discovered the school because she was doing repairs for so many of its students. As she got to know the school and its founder better, she decided that she wanted to be involved and volunteered to be on the board. "I just found it amazing that this woman, Anne Crowden, had so many fine students. She is one of these rare individuals who is totally respected by adolescents and is genuinely fond of them."

Balter strongly believes that the Crowden model for learning, using chamber music as the central focus, is unique and that it works. "This really is a great opportunity for kids to have their creative needs met in a real way," she says. "We don’t have the high-tech computers or science labs that other schools have, but they don’t have the music that we have. Where else can you have John Adams write a piece and have the kids perform it?"

She is referring to the October 1998 concert, guest-conducted by Adams, that celebrated the opening of the Jefferson School campus. A world-renowned composer, Adams lives with his family in Berkeley. His daughter went through the Crowden program, and his son is currently attending. He and his wife, Deborah O’Grady, are strong supporters of the school; Adams is a member of its music advisory board and O’Grady is the first vice-chair of the board of directors. "It is a very unusual situation," says Adams, of the school’s chamber-music focus and its pre–high-school age range. "There is nothing like it in New York or any other major U.S. city."

Adams and Balter have each convinced prestigious musicians, such as Midori, Robert McDuffie, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, to perform and teach master classes at the school. "The quality here is incomparable," he says. "We have brought in many musicians, and they are all just agog with the quality and the activity and the spirit of the school." Adams is well aware of the value of such a unique facility. "I personally am very committed to it because I am a composer, and the future of my music depends on skilled musicians and also on people who are potential audience [members], not just players."

This zealous attitude is shared by the staff. Marcia King is the director of admissions and has been integral to the school’s success, according to Anne Crowden. King discovered the institution when she was seeking private violin lessons for her two children. With the help of a partial scholarship and work exchange, King enrolled both her children at the school. This eventually led to a full-time job in 1988, and she has been there ever since. She says that she realized early on "that something very splendid, something truly extraordinary, was going on and that my children and I were privileged to be a part of it." Of the school’s founder, she declares, "I have never met someone so committed to a music program. The experience for the children of being with Anne and Piero is a wonderful opportunity."

When asked what she wants to convey to the world about the Crowden School, Crowden herself replies, "That music and academics is a combination that works. The biggest satisfaction I’ve got is that it works academically, and the children are happy and engaged. They are very civil to each other because they have bonded through music." Crowden fervently believes that her learning model is a good one, and she decries the slashed public-school arts budgets of recent years. "I’d like to make educators aware that it really works to give children something creative to do at least two hours a day," she says.

Although Crowden is stepping down (asked why she is retiring, she jokes, "So I can play more golf"), she has many ideas for the school’s future, including an independent study program and an expansion of Crowden into a charter school, with multiple locations. She also looks forward to input from Ben Simon, whom she has chosen to take over the baton.

"I don’t want to rethink the whole thing," she claims. "I know Ben will have new ideas. I trust him so much because he is even more of a chamber-music addict than I am, so his heart will be in exactly the same place."

BEN SIMON STEPS IN

Anne Crowden is one who has always relied on personal instincts to make important choices, and her choice of Ben Simon to succeed her was no exception. An extremely gifted musician and teacher, Simon has a seemingly boundless store of energy, warmth, humor, and enthusiasm. By fall 2000 he will move from the associate director’s post to assume Crowden’s position as director.

Simon’s background includes performing all over the world with many prestigious groups, including the New World String Quartet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. Most recently, he has been a faculty member at Stanford, as well as a member of the Stanford and Ives String Quartets.

Simon had known Anne Crowden since his high-school days in Berkeley, where she was a respected chamber musician and "the violin teacher of everyone in my neighborhood," he says. After 20 years away, Simon returned to the Bay Area in 1993 to play in the Stanford String Quartet. As fellow chamber-music enthusiasts, they had kept loose touch over the years and upon his return, they talked on the phone and Crowden came to several of his concerts.

In the spring of 1998 Simon called to ask about sending his son to the school. That phone call changed his life. When Simon arrived at the school, he was in for a surprise.

"I hadn’t seen Anne for a couple of years, and I went to visit her in the basement of the church," says Simon. "I had never seen the school, but I’d heard so many things about it. So I walked in and Anne, in her typically forthright manner, said, ‘Ben, I’ve got a proposition for you.’ And literally within the first five minutes of seeing her, she told me that she was thinking about retiring and was thinking about a successor, and that when I had left my name on her answering machine, she had said, ‘This is the person.’

"Anne doesn’t forget anybody, and we had always had a nice connection," asserts Simon. "When I quit the Los Angeles Philharmonic it was to go play in the Stanford String Quartet, and she said that’s why she hired me, because she knew I was as crazy about chamber music as she was. And that’s really the kind of person she wanted for this job."

After spending some time at the school, Simon decided to accept the position. "It feels like a very special place. Anne has assembled a truly remarkable, dedicated staff of musicians. And I love being in a place where kids are carrying around violin cases instead of footballs," he says. "It’s not ‘Who scored the most touchdowns in last Saturday’s game?’ It’s, ‘Boy, you did a great job on your Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.’ And that’s the kind of place where I want to spend my time."

Simon is very enthusiastic about the Crowden School’s new home and wants to utilize the new space to reach as many students as possible. Since Crowden is a private school, however, not everyone can afford to attend full-time. Simon explains, "The school tries to keep its fees at the median for private schools in the Bay Area, and there is a very generous scholarship rate. And the CCMC is a way for us to do outreach into the community and to have younger kids, who might not have the opportunity to know anything about a stringed instrument or classical music, get all the benefits of collaboration and learning classical music and the joys of all those activities."

Simon is also committed to the unique learning model at Crowden. "We make music the center of one’s day and one’s education, and to branch out from there to use music as a way of learning," says Simon. "Everyone’s running around and interacting and there’s music in every room. It’s controlled chaos. There’s always a kind of ‘let’s put on a show’ atmosphere, and it’s always very personal and down-home, and I really want to preserve that quality."

When asked about his ideas for the future of the Crowden School or, as he fondly refers to it, "Crowden 2000," he replies, "I have a lot of ideas, but I think that my first job will really be learning where the school is now, what it’s capable of, and allowing it to grow organically—not just adding programs or adding classes. We cannot allow it to get huge. It’s really a community for chamber music, and that [feeling] has to remain."

Above all, Simon is intent on preserving Anne Crowden’s vision for the school. "Anne is unique, and it is the Crowden School. My own mission will be to keep Anne’s core values, and the sense I get from the school, intact for as long as the school survives, and to shepherd it through its growth and change while remaining true to those values. It’s like keeping ten plates spinning at every moment; Anne manages to do that with aplomb, so what I am going to do in this next year is try to figure out how she does it. But," he adds, "Anne will always be the spiritual leader of the Crowden School, and she will always be our guiding force."

The Crowden School and CCMC can be reached at (510) 559-6910, by fax at (510) 559-6940, or online at www.thecrowdenschool.org. The Crowden School documentary can be ordered from the school for $15.

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