Two months after the Titanic sank and two years before the First World War began, Constance Lane was born in Hecla, South Dakota, USA,on June 22 1912. Although Hecla is defined as a city, its population was 295 in 2009, not much higher than it was in 1912. They didn’t stay there long.

Then one day, Ted Anderson, a widower and prominent pediatrician, hired Connie to give piano lessons to his two adolescent sons. According to the boys, who had just acquired their driver’s licenses, they enjoyed driving Connie home following their lessons. However, they soon realized that their driving was no longer needed; their father had gradually taken their place. By 1939, Connie and Ted were married. Two years later and after their son Lane’s birth, Ted departed for the South Pacific where he served as a doctor in the US armed forces.

After the war, Ted returned to Minneapolis, where he resumed his medical practice. Two years later, Connie gave birth to their second son Brooks. Soon after, Ted became ill and took early retirement. The Andersons decided to take a year to travel around Europe. During their journey, they made an overnight stop in Gstaad and loved it so much they decided to extend their stay. Two years passed. Connie and Ted decided to settle for good. They lived in Charlet Erna on the Wispile, and later rented an apartment behind the Oehrli Bakery.

Connie took to mountain life with gusto. At the age of 40, she learned how to ski. At 44, she climbed the Matterhorn. She made friends easily and loved to entertain. Meanwhile, Ted led a relatively quiet life, except for the permanent flow of both local and foreign visitors in their home.

Gradually, Connie befriended musicians, both professional and amateur; and soon, she was giving duo concerts throughout the area and especially in the Saanen Church, which later become a favorite venue for the Menuhin Festival. Founded in 1957, the Menuhin Festival has become one of the most important classical music events in Switzerland. Connie was an organist in various churches, including the Saanen Church, Lauenen Church, and the St Nicholas Chapel in Gstaad, where she played for friends’ weddings and funerals. 

By the late 1950’s, Connie and Ted had built a house in Rougemont, where they lived for approximately eight years. But in 1967, Ted died. Connie sold the Rougemont house and moved back to Gstaad. For the following five years, she managed the Harkness Ballet School on the Wispile. The Harkness Ballet was a noted New York ballet company founded by Rebekah Harkness, an heiress and dance lover. Connie also lived in the chalet built for Rebekah Harkness that housed the ballet school. After the school folded, she bought it.

After the purchase, Connie remodeled the ballet school chalet, turning it into a home. She converted the two-story dance hall—which took up nearly the entire footprint of the chalet—into a living room. Near the picture windows stood two grand pianos. She kept the mirrored walls and surrounding ballet bars that would serve as remaining traces of the ballet school’s prior existence and that explained the chalet’s name: ‘Ballethuus,’ the Swiss German name for ‘Ballet House.’ So it was in this unique space, that Connie invited her friends to enjoy world-class classical music. Sometimes, one could count as many as 150 heads in the room.

Connie loved the company of people of all ages, particularly musicians and music lovers. For years, she housed young Menuhin Academy students in her downstairs studio and allowed them to practice in her living room. She promoted them by organizing concerts for them both in her house and by talking them up to festival planners. She played duets with anyone who could keep up and accompanied amateur violinists. Often, she played Bach preludes and fugues with William F Buckley, Jr, the American conservative author and commentator. She’d play the left hand, allowing Bill to have the right one, that more often than not, features the melody. The Buckleys became closest friends with Connie.

During her later years, she and her son Brooks moved to an apartment in Rübeldorf, Saanen. There, she organized concerts albeit on a smaller scale than she had had on the Wispile. She did so well into her 90’s, all the while preparing meals for her friends. She also enjoyed carrying out a project every day that included going on day trips with her son Brooks. During these small voyages, they discovered ancient monasteries and hidden Swiss villages, furthering her desire to know more of Switzerland. She remained a music lover, attending concerts in Lucerne, Montreux and Geneva. For her 91st birthday, she received a walking cane with a bicycle bell attached that allowed her to get through crowds at the close of a concert.

She lived the final two years of her life in the Praz-Soleil residence in Château-d’Oex. There, she died peacefully on October 23, 2010. She is survived by her two sons Lane and Brooks Anderson; two grandsons David Anderson and Noel Anderson; and one great-grand-daughter Sofia Constance Anderson.