Couple gives $10m to DC orchestra
OrchestrasBoard member Roger Sant has pledged $10 million to the National Symphony Orchestra, its largest-ever individual gift. It brings Sant’s total lifetime giving to more than $35 million.
Part of this funds the naming of the Music Director Chair for Roger Sant and Congresswoman Doris Matsui. Sant said: ‘Leaving these legacy gifts to the National Symphony Orchestra is an expression of our profound love for the NSO and its gifted musicians. My wife, Doris, and I are grateful to the creation of the Roger Sant and Congresswoman Doris Matsui Chair, dedicated to the NSO Music Director. Our hope is that this chair will amplify the NSO’s capacity to inspire and enrich our community through the transformative power of music.’
Happy news for those of us who enjoy concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra, which is in superb form these days.
Fantastic. Just heard their great “Otello” in concert last weekend. Maybe now they will have funds to do the Ring Cycle?
The Ring Cycle? The NSO should be more adventuresome than that, but I suppose some big donors might go for such a project.
Noseda and the National Symphony should release commercial recordings (likely download only) on its own in-house label of the following works (each scheduled to be given two or more performances in the 2024-2025 season).
Sergei Prokofiev’s Summer Night (Suite from Betrothal in a Monastery)
Alexander Raskatov’s Oboe Concerto – Time’s River — an NSO co-commission.
Nino Rota’s Trombone Concerto.
Barber’s Vanessa
The orchestra should be planning to release commercial recordings every year.
What a generous gift! Kudos to Roger & Doris.
Matsui has been a member of the House of Representatives for almost 20 years. She represents a district northeast of San Francisco that is too far from that city to call it the ‘San Francisco suburbs’. House members who have a national profile are relatively rare, but she is not one of them. I am surprised that she and her husband haven’t made their gift to an organization closer to home, such as the orchestras of San Francisco, Oakland or Sacramento.
Noseda’s abilities are stronger than his profile. I haven’t heard the Washington orchestra in a long time. It has always suffered because of the high cost of living in Washington, and the lack of a nearby conservatory where the orchestra members may earn additional income by teaching.
The NSO was always a “good” orchestra but over the last 5 years under the leadership of Noseda they have become world class. Maybe not quite the Cleveland, but recent concerts of Othello and Mahler 7, demonstrate that they are of international class. The bad days of complacency are over. They deserve more respect from D Rutter the queen of wokism.
Saint Sant