Anne B. Mayer passed away on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at age 88. She retired from Carleton in 1999 — after 40 years of service to the College — as the Dye Family Professor of Music, Emerita. Please join us in honoring her life on May 18, 2024 at 11am at Northfield United Methodist Church (more details in the obituary).
Comments
Oh, Miss Mayer, God bless you. The world is less musical without you in it, but the memories you created in all those you touched in your life will live on. I was blessed to be your student.
Miss Mayer was a great teacher, and she made me a better musician. I’m quite sure that I wouldn’t have made a career in music without her nurturing support. One of the greatest joys in my years at Carleton was playing clarinet (along with Jane Hoyt) in the Carleton Orchestra, led by the great Jeremy Balmuth, which accompanied Miss Mayer’s sublime performances (we played it in Northfield and in Minneapolis) of Mozart’s C minor concerto, K. 491. To this day, some 40 years later, I cannot hear this piece without becoming deeply emotional. It will be even more so now. She paid Jane and me an incredibly meaningful compliment, by telling Jeremy how good she thought we sounded. I lived on that compliment for years after. She was a treasure, and my deepest condolences go out to her loved ones.
An elegant and kind woman, from the first time I met her when I played an audition for her on a campus visit before I became a Carleton student - she was one of my best piano teachers, constantly challenging me - and always supportive. And such an intelligent and expressive musician. I still count the opportunities I had to perform with her at Carleton as some of my favorite musical memories - as 2nd piano for The Mikado, and as a violinist in the Carleton Orchestra for Chopin and Ravel concertos. RIP, Miss Mayer.
A delightful and kind-hearted lady! May she rest in peace!
I miss the opportunities we will no longer have to meet for lunch;you Ellen and me.
We always found something to laugh about!
I was fortunate to be in Vienna with Ann on that Fulbright year, and to have ended up teaching at Carleton, where I often heard her play. She was a wonderful musician and human being.