Peter Crowe

Peter Russell Crowe was born Palmerston North on 25th February 1932.

He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch NZ 1945–8; Victoria University College 1953–8 (DipMus 1956, BMusHons 1958). Further studies in composition followed with Bruno Maderna, then Sydney and Auckland Universities in anthropology and ethnomusicology. He became a specialist in Melanesian music. In 1974 was an Anzac Fellow. He became the joint-co-ordinator of Vanuatu Oral Traditions Programme in 1975, Secretary-Treasurer of the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, and a member Société Française d'Ethnomusicologie. He produced over 150 publications on ethnomusicology and NZ music. He spent most of his adult life in France and was director of LATOP (Laboratoire des Traditions Orales du Pacifique) at Université de Bordeaux-2.

He returned to live in Auckland, New Zealand in the late 1990s and died on 21 April 2004.