Beatrice Perham Krone; Co-Founder of Idyllwild Arts School

Beatrice Perham Krone, music educator who with her late husband, Max, founded the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts at Mt. San Jacinto half a century ago, has died. She was 98.

Krone died Sunday at the Village Health Care Center in the Riverside County town of Hemet, said her stepson, Robert M. Krone.

Known as “Bee,” Krone was a lecturer at the USC School of Music in 1946 when Idyllwild Arts, as it is now known, was first conceived. Krone and her husband, then dean of the USC music department and a renowned choral conductor, worked with USC School of Law Dean Robert Kingsley to establish the Idyllwild Arts Foundation.

Four years later, their fledgling summer school opened with 40 students and eight instructors on 250 acres of mountain land 120 miles east of the USC main campus.

The Krones had long believed that participation in music and other arts enhanced human development. Discussing that concept, Max Krone had told a Los Angeles meeting of music and arts educators in 1941:

“A child taught to listen is a child building his defenses against the too-great speed, the too-great pressure which will bring physical and moral disaster if it is not stopped. Medical experts are warning us what will happen to us physically if we do not learn to relax and slow down; psychologists are pointing out mental and spiritual inroads which are being made upon character.”

In the early years, the Krones’ innovative mountain campus was operated as a cultural summer camp for all members of the family. USC officially took over the school in 1964, only to hand it back to the Idyllwild Arts Foundation in 1983.

Over the years, dormitories, classrooms and other facilities were built, enlarged and rebuilt. In 1995 the school’s name was shortened to Idyllwild Arts. In addition to the original summer programs and scheduled conferences, the complex now functions year-round and includes the Idyllwild Arts Academy, a private boarding school preparing teenagers for college.

The school’s new 10,000-square-foot Max and Beatrice Krone Library and Museum was dedicated only one day before Beatrice Krone’s death. The complex includes a computer center, music and listening library, research materials, a gallery, museum and classrooms.

Over the years, Bee Krone helped her husband and others attract top educators and artists to the Idyllwild faculty, including Hollywood choreographer Bella Lewitsky, Yale Puppeteers director Harry Burnett, photographer Minor White, painter Fritz Scholder and American Indian artist Michael Kabotie.

In addition to her stepson, Robert, of San Bernardino, Krone is survived by a stepdaughter, Jean Brizendine of Indian Valley, Idaho; a brother, Harlow Perham of Anaheim; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The family plans a private memorial service. Donations in Krone’s honor can be directed to the Max and Beatrice Krone Library and Museum, Idyllwild Arts, Box 38, Idyllwild, CA 92549.