Anne Crowden, founding director of the Crowden School in Berkeley, California, died on March 15 of pancreatic cancer. She was 76. Crowden, who served on the advisory board of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, was a distinguished violin teacher and chamber-music coach. She instilled music making and inspired appreciation of the highest order to everyone whose life she touched.

Appointed to the Royal Academy of Music in 1980 for distinguished service to music, Crowden was a firm believer that academic and musical education could go side by side. She started the Crowden School in 1983 for students ages eight to 18. Midori, Robert McDuffie, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg were among the prestigious players who taught master classes there. "Aside from highly developed bow arms and consequently distinctive sounds, her students were trained in so much more than just how to play their instruments," says former Crowden student and longtime friend Jeremy Cohen of Quartet San Francisco. "They learned to blend, how to lead, to communicate, to listen, to stay out of the way when necessary, and how to give it all you've got when it's time to and when all else fails, play the heck out of the first and last notes!

Crowden is survived by her daughter, Deirdre Cooper, a cellist in London; four grandchildren; and a brother. Donations in her memory may be made to the Anne Crowden Fund at the Crowden School, 1745 Rose St., Berkeley, CA, 94702.

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