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Longtime music educator Carroll Ann Bottino died in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 23, 2025, at the age of 87, from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. She was born in Wayland to Ann Carroll and Walter F. Sheridan and grew up in Lexington, where she lived for most of her life. She attended Hancock Elementary School, Muzzey Junior High, Matignon High School, Emmanuel College and graduated from Boston University with a degree in Mathematics. Throughout her youth and college years she pursued her love of music, studying piano at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.Carroll Ann was a passionate educator at heart and dedicated her life to teaching classical and early music. For more than six decades—five of them in Lexington—she welcomed students into her home, from where the sounds of pianos, harpsichords, and recorders wafted into the neighborhood. If someone wasn’t playing an instrument, the radio carried classical music or the news, creating a home immersed in learning and culture. She first taught her own children, then those of friends, and eventually students of all ages, both individually and in ensembles. For Carroll Ann, learning music was a way to cultivate life skills and not necessarily a career. She believed music should be one of life’s many enriching pursuits. Her lessons included discussions about challenges and successes in school, work, family, and extracurricular activities. She encouraged a disciplined and passionate approach to all interests. For Carroll Ann, learning music required dedication to practicing and performance. Using a metronome, learning your scales, and researching the history of the pieces and composers you played were expected. There was little room for negotiations about your participation in what she thought was good for you!Twice each year, Carroll Ann hosted student concerts in her home for families and the community. She also conducted workshops, organized musical events for local organizations, and encouraged her students to participate in juried competitions, including the National Piano Playing Auditions. Students were like extended family, sharing concerts, outings, and family milestones. As she said, “If a child studies with me, I expect to go to his high school graduation, to play at her wedding, and maybe the funeral of a grandparent. I love that kind of relationship.” Students were often grateful for her role in their lives. One wrote, “Ms. Bottino taught me to believe in myself. She is the most influential woman in my life.”Carroll Ann held herself to the same rigorous standards she expected of her students. She religiously practiced for two hours each day, regardless of whether she had already taught for ten. Up until the moment she was moved to a memory care facility two and half years ago, she continued to practice. As her Alzheimer’s progressed, she would forget that she had already practiced and would play all day long.Beyond music, Carroll Ann was an intrepid do-it-yourselfer. She researched and learned the skills needed to take on many home maintenance projects. Well into her seventies, she climbed ladders and set up scaffolding to paint and repair her home, pooh-poohing anyone who voiced concern. Her father instilled a do-it-yourself spirit, and Carroll Ann encouraged the same discipline and independence in her sons. While raising her sons and teaching, Carroll Ann was also engaged in civic life. She was active in the League of Women Voters and many other social and political causes. Her car was plastered with the logos and pronouncements of progressive causes, cultural institutions and places she visited. To keep her students informed, she covered walls and surfaces in her home with underlined and annotated articles and announcements about cultural events, current affairs and places of interest. Carroll Ann was an avid volunteer, concert goer, gallery visitor, traveler, hiker, bicyclist, swimmer, sailor, and cross-country skier. If you didn’t know how to appreciate New England’s outdoor activities, especially of the winter variety, you would be taken and taught. She was a voracious reader, researcher, and note-taker who loved her local library. She approached every task, adventure, and decision with remarkable focus and, at times, a daunting intensity. Food and sleep were necessities not to be dawdled over. She was never without a strong cup of black tea with milk and spoons of sugar, only surpassed in later years by chocolate syrup with milk. Her dentist fought a losing battle. Carroll Ann will be remembered for her comprehensive and impactful approach to teaching, her complete investment in her students’ lives, her insatiable drive to learn and do and her fierce independence. She leaves behind a love for life and music that will continue to resonate in the hearts of those she taught and inspired. She remained strong-willed and independent-minded until her last breath. She is survived by her two sons: Sanford Bottino and his partner, Inez Ingles, of New Mexico; and Michael Sheridan and his wife, Anuradha Desai, of Boston, Massachusetts; as well as many loving cousins. A celebration of Carroll Ann’s life will be held in October.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Rogerson House Staff Appreciation Fund, Amnesty International USA, or the Boston Early Music Festival.

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