Allen Crowell

Allen C. Crowell, a 25-year resident of Athens, Georgia, originally from Mobile, Alabama, died on March 29, 2025, after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 87. He was a brilliant musician, witty, funny, a voracious reader, practical and passionate, stoic in his approach to daily life and world events, fiery and intense with a baton in his hand, and possessed a breadth of knowledge, both academic and trivial, that convinced his daughters growing up that he could speak every language and knew absolutely everything. In 1960, he married his high school sweetheart, Phyllis Merry. Their love was a force in the universe, their partnership a north star that guided their family and affected everyone in their lives, their friends, their colleagues, and their community at Athens First Presbyterian Church. He was admired and respected by everyone, and yet remained humble in the face of all his accomplishments. His absence is palpable, and he will be sorely missed by all who loved and knew him.

Allen grew up in Mobile, Alabama as the oldest of four children. They were not well off, but his parents saw to it that he had piano lessons, clarinet lessons, ballroom dancing lessons, even elocution lessons. At Murphy High School, he was the drum major of the marching band, where he met Phyllis, who played French horn. From a young age, Allen sang in church, and as a teenager began taking voice lessons with the music minister at Dauphin Way Methodist, who came to Mobile from the staff at Westminster Choir College. That fortuitous connection ultimately led Allen to attend Westminster—first for a summer program and then for college, and while his parents were suspect that their son, or anyone, could make a living as a musician, his determination and talent won out. At Westminster, he sang with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall with Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan and John Barbirolli. After graduation, knowing that he would likely soon be drafted into the army, he learned that there was a new choral group being formed at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Virginia, home of The Army Band. He auditioned, was accepted, and after completing basic training, headed to Ft. Myer to begin what he thought would be a three-year stint, serving his country while performing. His very first gig was on October 14, 1959, when sixteen singers with their director drove up to the White House back gate, went inside, and sneaked down a long hall. When President Eisenhower walked through on his way from the living quarters to the oval office, they sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Not bad for his first engagement. In 1962, he expected to leave the Army and go to graduate school in Indiana, but The Army Chorus was becoming its own entity, needed a director and he was presented with an opportunity to become an officer and take the helm of the Army Chorus and become the Associate Bandmaster of The Army Band. It was too good to pass up; he stayed in the Army, went to graduate school in DC at Catholic University instead, and became the energetic and empathetic director of a group of singers he had once been one of, caring for the men, the music and process more than the glory. During those years in Washington, Allen also performed regularly as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony in a series of pop concerts, served as the bass soloist at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. for 17 years, and was bass soloist with The York Symphony in Pennsylvania. He also performed in many operas, including as the Count in the American premier of Dvorak’s Šelma Sedlák, for which he was interviewed in Czech by Voice of America radio, the interviewer having mistaken him for fluent because of how convincingly he sang it.

After serving 20 years in the Army, regularly performing at The White House and State Dinners, including the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords, Allen retired, at the ripe old age of 42, and began the second phase of his musical career, returning to Princeton, New Jersey, to teach choral conducting and conduct the Oratorio Choir at Westminster Choir College. While there, he formed a new group—The Westminster Singers—who performed everything from madrigals (including a sentimental favorite, Fair Phyllis, which he dedicated to his wife) to pop music. After 20 years at Westminster, which included some existentially challenging ones for the small music college, during which Allen stepped up and acted as interim dean, he was contemplating retirement. That is, until he received a call from the University of Georgia Department of Music, where they had had a failed search for a new head of choral music. Everyone kept telling them, “You need someone like Allen Crowell,” and it occurred to them, “Why don’t we just call Allen Crowell?” He and Phyllis moved to Athens in 1999, and for the next ten years, he served as the Heyward Chair of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities at UGA, and they settled into a town and community that felt like home.

During his 50-year career as a conductor, Allen led All-State Bands and Choruses, honors groups and other festivals all across the country, and he conducted the highly acclaimed American Choral Directors Association National Men’s Honor Choir at their national convention in Washington, D.C. in 1995. He was a member of ACDA, an Honorary Life Member of the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, and a retired member of the American Bandmasters Association. From 1998 to 2003, he was the Music Director of the Ghost Ranch Vocal Camp in New Mexico. He received an honorary doctorate from Westminster Choir College in 2006 and was named Conductor Emeritus of The United States Army Band in 2017.

Retirement didn’t slow Allen and Phyllis down. They travelled the world and the country, and at home were active members of the Athens chapter of the Torch Club and became increasingly involved in the First Presbyterian community, where Allen was an integral member of their tight-knit Sunday School class, New Voices, sang in the choir and was the Chair of Worship and Music when he was an Elder on Session.

Allen is survived by his life-long love, Phyllis, his daughters Venetia Coffey (Carl) and Johanna Norry (Rabbi Hillel), grandchildren Natanya and Zamir Norry and was preceded in death by his siblings Nancy Thames, John (Jack) Crowell and Glenn Crowell, and parents, NanJo Green and Allen Cantey Crowell, Sr.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 2:00 PM at Athens First Presbyterian Church.

Lord & Stephens Funeral Home, EAST, Athens is entrusted with arrangements. www.lordandstephens.com.