LA school gets $16.6m donation for Salonen program
OrchestrasThe Colburn School in Los Angeles, host to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s conducting Fellowship, has received a huge $16.6 million donation from an Illinois-based foundation.
Salonen said: ‘I am deeply grateful to The Negaunee Foundation for supporting this program from the very beginning. With this new and generous gift, we hope to make the Negaunee Conducting Program into the foremost conducting apprenticeship, finding talented individuals, regardless of their age or where they are in their studies, and nurturing that talent to share with the world.’
The School will also house Salonen’s 1,400 annotated scores within a new Frank Gehry-designed campus.
Salonen, who is quitting the San Francisco Symphony after a falling out with the board, is quoted in today’s NY Times saying: ‘I’m not rushing into anything…I just want to get my priorities right.’
Very soon Salonen will not have an orchestra where his students can get consistent assisting experience. Is Colburn going to flying the students all over the world for his guest conducting gigs? (A similar program is in place in Curtis under YNS. But students there can assist YNS at the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Met, both close to Curtis.) Also, about half of his former students have become Dudamel Fellows, working with the LA Phil. What if LA chooses a music director that wants nothing to do with Salonen’s students? After all it’s quite understandable that the new MD will want his own picks as conducting fellows. Is Salonen going to ask Dudamel to take them on in New York? One cannot help but wonder how this arrangement is going to work out.
Salonen can of course also ask Klaus Mäkelä to hire them at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Blimey what would you do with 1400 annotated scores??
Study them?
I thought EPS was a mouthpiece for the fresh hell that is the Californian high tech industry….interactive virtual headsets for every young concert goer etc.etc.etc. So presumably 1,500 annotated conductors scores collecting dust are so very ‘Last century’
More egg on SFS’s face. Why couldn’t they get $16 mil for EP?
The Negaunee Foundation is run by a member of the Colburn Family, hence the gift going to the Colburn School instead of, say, SFS.
They couldn’t get it from the Negaunee Foundation, presumably, because the Negaunee Foundation is a Colburn family organization which doubtless wanted to direct its donation to the Colburn School of Music.
“I just want to get my priorities right”.
The SFS board may want to do the same.
That linked NY Times article is absolutely cringe. He should ask for a refund from his publicist Amanda Ameer if this is the best she could do.