Well known teacher and performer Stanley Darrow, an owner of Acme Accordion School, Haddon, New Jersey, long time ATG Board member, passed away on the evening of 13th March.
Picture above: Joanna and Stanley Darrow.
accordions.com News Editor Rob Howard writes:
“Stanley Darrow, one of America’s most devoted accordion luminaries, passed away on March 13th at the age of 83.
Stanley Darrow, from Camden, New Jersey, began playing the accordion at the age of 16. “My grandfather, who didn’t play himself, encouraged me and thought I would enjoy it,” he said. He studied at New York City College of Music, Combs College, PA, Neupauer Conservatory of Music, PA, and the Hohner Konservatorium in Trossigen, Germany, and enjoyed a lifetime of playing the accordion in concerts and teaching legions of children and adults at his studio.
In 1952 he founded the long established Acme Accordion School, Westmont, New Jersey, where thousands of children and adults of all ages studied the accordion with Stanley Darrow and Joanna Arnold.
Stanley Darrow was a member of the Accordion Teachers’ Association of New Jersey, the American Accordionists’ Association (AAA), and was an active board member of the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International (ATG), and the American Accordion Musicological Society.
With his interest in contemporary accordion music, he was one of the earliest to release an all contemporary LP of all original accordion music in 1965.
He was founder-director of the Westmont Philharmonia Accordion Orchestra (1960), the Delaware Accordion Club, and also organized the annual King of Prussia festivals in Philadelphia, involving many accordionists, and was very well liked and respected by all who knew him.
Funeral arrangements: visitation Friday, March 23rd from 7 to 9 PM at Jackson Funeral Home, 308 Haddon Ave., Haddon Township, NJ, and on Saturday from 10 to 11 AM, where his funeral service will follow at 11 AM. Interment Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill, NJ.”
In lieu of flowers, contributions in the memory of Stanley may be made to American Accordion Musicological Society, 322 Haddon Avenue, Westmont, NJ 08108 or The Angels Community Outreach, 334 S. Broadway, Pitman, NJ 08071 or at www.theangelscommunityoutreach.org
Picture below, Stanley Darow, Co-Director of the Westmont Philharmonia Accordion Orchestra and to his left, Joanna Arnold Darrow Co-Director.
