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. He also recorded on 2 LPs a few of the most important sonatas for the piano by Muzio Clementi (Editions de L'Oiseau Lyre SOL 306 and 307).

Some of the other major artists with whom he worked were Janet Baker, Itzhak Perlman, Uto Ughi, Harald Strebel 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 chamber music pianists of our day".