PIANO 1952 : Sixth Prize
American pianist Lamar Crowson (1926-1998) studied at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and subsequently (1948-50) the piano at the Royal College of Music in London with Arthur Benjamin. He was appointed to the staff of that college in 1957. From 1965 to 1968 he was a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town and from 1969 to 1971 professor at the Royal College. He returned to the University of Cape Town in 1972, where he was a senior lecturer and later (1980) a professor, receiving an honorary doctorate in 1996.
Although Lamar Crowson's first success was as a soloist, it was as a chamber musician that he soon made his name. For many years he was the pianist for the Melos Ensemble. He worked with performers such as Jacqueline du Pré, Itzhak Perlman, Ruggiero Ricci, Janet Baker and Gervase de Peyer, and took part in the European premières of Poulenc's Sonata for clarinet and piano and Copland's Fantasy.