Four new grants to Cal Performances add up to $1.3 million, according to an announcement last weekend by Matías Tarnopolsky, the organization's director:
* $250,000 from Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem to support the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela’s residency, with Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, Nov. 26-30
* $250,000 from Ann and Gordon Getty to the Cal Performances Orchestra Residency Program, supporting the Philharmonia Orchestra’s engagement under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, on Nov. 9-11
* $760,000 award over five years from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation "to further the integration of Cal Performances’ artistic programs into the academic life of UC Berkeley"
* $75,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the West Coast premiere of Einstein on the Beach, Oct. 26-28
Comment from Tarnopolsky:
Cal Performances is an organization in a unique class. We have extraordinary artistic standards and attract the world’s greatest artists and ensembles, and we are situated at the heart of one of the world’s top public universities. These gifts are at once a powerful endorsement of our vision and a recognition of the importance of the role of Cal Performances both on the UC Berkeley campus and in the Bay Area at large.