Lamar Crowson

John Lamar Crowson (May 27, 1926 – August 25, 1998) was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician.Crowson was born in Tampa, Florida. His early education was in Portland, Oregon with noted pedagogue, Nellie Tholen, where he attended Reed College (1943–1948), majoring in art, history and literature. He later studied piano under Arthur Benjamin who invited him to study at the Royal College of Music in 1948 and was appointed to the staff in 1957. During the 1950s he won many major prizes, including the Chappell Gold Medal, the Dannreuther Prize and the Harriet Cohen International Medal. In 1952 he was laureate in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. This initiated his career as a concert pianist performing with such notable conductors as Sir John Barbirolli, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Colin Davis and Pierre Monteux among others.Crowson was pianist for the Melos Ensemble for many years. Emanuel Hurwitz, leader of the Ensemble, said, "When you walk on to a platform with someone of his artistic integrity, you feel nothing but total confidence". His recordings with the Melos Ensemble include the Beethoven as well as the Mozart quintets for piano and wind, Johann Nepomuk Hummel's quintet and septet, Leoš Janáček's Concertino, which earned the Edison Award and Schubert's "Trout" Quintet. The New York Times praised his recording of the Fauré Piano Quartet with the Pro Arte Quartet. He played and recorded with the Pro Arte Piano Quartet, Kenneth Sillito (violin), Cecil Aronowitz (viola) and Terence Weil (cello).Some of the other major artists with whom he worked were Janet Baker, Itzhak Perlman and Jacqueline du Pré. He introduced the European premières of Poulenc's Sonata for clarinet and piano and Copland's Fantasy. Crowson also gave the first performance of Peter Racine Fricker's Twelve Studies, in Cheltenham in 1961 and the composer dedicated the work to him. In 1981 Alfred Brendel wrote that Crowson was "one of the finest chamb