Jack Kent Cooke, a man of many enterprises, poured the last decades of his life into the Washington Redskins. His triumphant, behatted visage became iconic after the 1983 Super Bowl (and sparked a national sales run on the hat!). But as proud as he was of the team, he decided to sell it to fund his philanthropic legacy.
18 PHILANTHROPY Reprinted from the Summer 2018 issue of Philanthropy magazine (PhilMag.org)
Musical Excellence and the Media Mogul
Standing behind a popular force that’s
boosting classical music Taiga and Aliya Ultan grew up with their and young players mother Wendy in nomadic fashion— moving 29 times during childhood, is one very driven donor and never staying in one place for more than three years. Sometimes the By Caitrin Keiper trio even lived out of their car. Wendy, a violinist, traveled from gig to gig while homeschooling her daughters In this way, Taiga’s instrument chose and encouraging them to delve into her. She eventually bought a used flute, whatever captured their imagination. and the salesman showed her the basic She surrounded them with books, art, fingering. Unable to afford lessons, she scores, recordings—“a whole world of explored playing styles on her own. In enrichment in tiny spaces,” says Taiga— the neighborhoods where her family but they had hardly any money. alighted she would sit outside and On a road trip when Taiga was seven, practice while kids gathered around to they happened upon a performance of listen. Amidst her financial instability Native American flute music. Taiga was and her lack of a settled home, “music swept away. She begged Wendy to buy gave me an outlet, a voice, and the a recording, but was surprised when her freedom to imagine myself liberated mother pulled out the necessary cash. from our difficult circumstances.” She listened to the tape over and over for Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; istockphoto.com/hidesy Cooke Kent Jack years, until it unraveled. Caitrin Keiper is editor of Philanthropy.
SUMMER 2018 19 She grew more confident musically. When Taiga was 12, Wendy bartered lessons for her with Adam Kuenzel, principal flute of the Minnesota Orchestra, in return for some housecleaning. The day they met, Taiga asked Kuenzel, “When are the auditions?” She thought owned had long since fallen apart, leaving her with he was up for replacement and figured she might take only a borrowed one. Aliya, who had taught herself his spot in the symphony. the Icelandic language at age eight, used her grant Now 20, Taiga laughs at the memory. But not to travel to Iceland and forge a connection with a long after that she was indeed to become a featured prominent conservatory. performer. On radio. Broadcast nationwide. The Ultan sisters have now become music Tune in to public radio at any given moment and teachers there. And they continue the concentrated you’re likely to hear the graceful strains of classical self-instruction bred in them from an early age and music. But catch it at the right time and you may be reinforced by the Cooke scholarships. Taiga is currently startled by a tender voice discussing the piece—a child immersing herself in types of classical music she with the skills of a fine musician. This is From the Top, finds unappealing. “This process of studying what I a showcase of immensely talented pre-teen and teen don’t love relates back to the difficult yet formative music students whose performances are broadcast to an experiences that shaped me,” she says. By working to audience of more than half a million weekly listeners. understand troublesome pieces, she learns to appreciate The show name is a triple entendre: It’s music their deeper beauty. parlance for “start at the beginning.” Plus the More than 300 young musicians with gifts for performers themselves are at the very beginning of music but sometimes not much else to build on their careers. And they are selected from the very top have had their lives altered, like Taiga and Aliya, level of young players nationwide. by the partnership between the Jack Kent Cooke This cream of the crop includes performers from Foundation and From the Top. And powering it all? all economic backgrounds. Thanks to the show’s tight The wealth of a man who was very much a diamond partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, in the rough himself. players with very high gifts who come from families with very low incomes are provided with scholarships Overture of around $10,000 specifically to support intensive “My life is better than any F. Scott Fitzgerald novel you music study. ever read,” said Jack Kent Cooke with characteristic You can hear the 17-year-old with a father in immodesty. He was born in Ontario in 1912 to prison and constant shootings in his neighborhood a Polish mother and Australian father who was a who accompanied his church’s gospel choir on the traveling salesman. The family never had much money, piano. His Cooke Young Artist Award allowed him and Jack had to forgo college to help take care of to receive formal training and become a successful his mother and three younger siblings. He vowed to composer and music director. Or there is the 11-year- become a millionaire. And by 31, he was. old girl who lost access to her piano when her mother Seven years earlier, as a penniless newlywed had to flee to a domestic-violence shelter. Her award salesman himself, he talked his way, through sheer enabled her to buy a new instrument and keep it in the persistence and charm, into managing a radio shelter, where she played for other residents. station. (“When you’re alone in a room with Jack, he In 2014, Taiga and her sister Aliya, a cellist, outnumbers you,” a colleague later put it.) In short were both selected for the show, and for Cooke order Cooke shook up the programming, turned scholarships. As many winners do, Taiga bought around the profits, and found himself at the helm of herself an instrument with the award. The flute she an expanding network of stations. Years of schlepping to every nook and cranny of Canada gave him a better sense of what ordinary people wanted to hear on the Music gave me an outlet, a voice, and radio than any received wisdom, and he often camped the freedom to imagine myself liberated out at his stations to teach and enforce his vision. He soon went into business for himself with his own from our difficult circumstances. broadcasting and publishing empire.
20 PHILANTHROPY Taiga Ultan’s experience on From the Top encouraged her to “take responsibility” for her opportunities to reach people through music. Now a teacher, she opens her students’ horizons in turn, connecting with them through an art that transcends class, nationality, language, and other barriers.
In 1951 he bought and revolutionized his first sports team, Toronto’s Triple-A baseball club, which he pulled from the bottom to the top of the International League in just three years. His dream was to bring major-league baseball to Toronto, but he was unable to cut through the red tape and forbidding ownership networks. Meanwhile, Canada was becoming too small a pond for his business aims. Its southern neighbor beckoned. When Cooke moved to the U.S. in 1960 he He struck up a friendship with cable pioneer and was, as a non-citizen, unable to hold a broadcasting eventual philanthropist Bill Daniels and got in on the license. That didn’t stop him. By a special act of forefront of the cable-television boom. He also started Congress “for the relief of Jack Kent Cooke” he snatching up sports teams—the Los Angeles Lakers bypassed the five-year waiting period and was (basketball), Los Angeles Kings (hockey), a soccer naturalized immediately—the only new American franchise, and the Washington Redskins (football). From the Top ever with this distinction. He built one of the first large modern stadiums in
SUMMER 2018 21 A young Jack Kent Cooke (right) was offered a hockey scholarship to the University of Michigan but had to turn it down to support his family through the Depression. He made it up to himself later by buying several sports teams and sending thousands of hard- working students in need to college.
legendary—the $42 million divorce settlement was logged in the Guinness America paid for with private rather Book of World Records as the largest than local government funds (L.A.’s in history. At that point, his love life Forum), organized the first professional became chaotic—he went on to be soccer championship in the U.S., bred married four more times to three more racing horses, and arranged the first women, and became estranged from closed-circuit boxing telecasts, including various family members. I was watching my Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s “Fight As an employer and public figure, of the Century.” He also bought the though, Cooke was extravagantly audience literally die Chrysler Building in New York City. generous and an excellent judge of off. So what better His intense devotion to his business ability. He sold his cable company for ventures came at a cost: in 1976 his wife $646 million in 1981 (another entry way to cultivate new of four decades left him, suggesting in the record books, as the largest he had abandoned her emotionally company-purchase in broadcasting). audiences than to give and otherwise long before. Cooke He then focused his energies on the the arena to budding often said the failure of this marriage Redskins, investing heavily in talent and was the biggest regret of his life. But facilities and leading them to win the young artists? even this low moment for him became Super Bowl three times in ten years. / mipan istockphoto.com
22 PHILANTHROPY Cooke liked to tell reporters that he His daughter, however, became an didn’t plan to die. Actually, though, he accomplished oboe student at the New formulated a powerful philanthropic plan England Conservatory. He sat in on her that allowed his name to live on after his orchestra practices from time to time, passing. His will directed that his beloved where he overheard conductor Benjamin Redskins be sold and the proceeds used dabbled in composing. As a teenager he Zander’s vivid, relatable instructions to establish a foundation to “advance the helped his family pay the bills by leading explaining the music. Zander would education of exceptionally promising a band that played on cruise ships. As tell the teen players things like, “In this students who have financial need.” Cooke was discussing plans for the section, the cellos are making love to the With an $800 million endowment foundation with a friend who would violins,” and they responded musically. from the sale, the Jack Kent Cooke become a board member, he suggested Slavet’s ears were opened to the art form Foundation opened its doors in 2000. that searching out high achievers among in a whole new way. Named for an autodidact who didn’t families in need was naturally going to Before long, he had become an go to college, it created pathways out uncover kids with unusual musical talent. energetic supporter of the New England of disadvantage for poor but genuinely The future board member worried Conservatory. Then he went looking high-achieving young Americans. Its that while he could judge academic for ways to bring this inviting version mandate is to empower truly gifted skill, he had no idea how to evaluate of classical music to a wider audience. youngsters who don’t happen to come musicians. That’s okay, said Cooke, Together with co-founder Jennifer from money—no soft standards here. you’ll find someone who can. And sure Hurley-Wales, he envisioned a radio Its investments are in serious talent that enough, as the foundation started to lay program featuring talented kids. Old radio lacks only the capital to develop itself. the groundwork for its music program, hands expressed doubt that children could (The one thing Cooke made clear his it found an ideal collaborator. Someone produce consistently compelling music. foundation was never to fund was sports.) suggested that the exact type of searching No one would tune in to hear a teenager Cooke Foundation executive and sorting for young musical talent that saw a squeaky violin. To win over station director Giuseppe Basili calls its grants the Cooke Foundation needed in order managers, Slavet intermixed recordings “last-dollar scholarships.” Staff first work to award its grants was already underway. made by his initial From the Top kids with with the awardees to obtain every other And it was happening on radio—the commercial records from professional form of aid they qualify for. Then the industry where Cooke’s career had begun! musicians, went to a conference of the foundation fills in any remaining gaps, This was music to their ears. gatekeepers responsible for choosing what covering things usually well beyond the goes on the air at classical-music stations, reach of poor students, including living Exposition and played his tape. No one could tell and travel expenses, tuition for special Jerry Slavet has lived his life from which player was which. opportunities, and generally “all the one adventure to the next. Born to The founders also strengthened resources they need to be successful.” uneducated immigrants, he was on the their show’s appeal by recruiting pianist As important as this financial path to a dependable career when he Christopher O’Riley to be the engaging support is the ample guidance and was bitten by the theater bug, roamed host, who would accompany and encouragement that advisers from the the world on a series of jobs in the interview the performers. “I was watching foundation provide to Cooke scholars. arts, then settled down in Boston at my audience literally die off,” explains Cooke himself had always lavished a real-estate company. He doubled O’Riley. “So what better way to cultivate attention on his talented hires, and his its profits in a year, became a partner, new audiences than to give the arena to foundation extends that tradition. The and—much to his surprise—found budding young artists?” camaraderie the foundation encourages himself a successful businessman. O’Riley himself had been successful among its awardees (who are often His most surprising career twist, from an early age, including as a finalist at outliers in the communities and though, the last thing he would ever the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition (for families they emerge from) also creates have anticipated, was that he would more on the Cliburn, see the following a strong peer group that challenges and one day preside over the most popular story). Yet he says the work ethic of the fortifies students. classical-music show on the radio. He students he plays with on From the Top After granting academic scholarships didn’t even like classical music. The puts his own young habits to shame. “They for a few years, the foundation wanted concerts had always seemed inaccessible, surprise and thrill me every time.” A secret to explore adding a music program to the whole undertaking like some elite to their skill, he notes, is America’s large its portfolio. Cooke himself had played club bent on shaming the ignorant rather informal corps of private music instructors. istockphoto.com / mipan istockphoto.com piano, saxophone, and clarinet, and even than drawing in the uninitiated. These private teachers quietly produce
SUMMER 2018 23 Boston investor Seth Klarman and his wife Beth were crucial early funders of From the Top. They remain among the most loyal supporters of the program to this day. Philanthropist and composer Gordon Getty (son of J. Paul Getty) and arts donors Helen and Peter Bing also provided important early backing. Slavet, who never took a penny for his work as a founder, is also a financial donor. As the program picked up visibility, other givers became involved: Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation, and hundreds more. The biggest supporter of all was also the most serendipitous.
Key change In 2005, the From the Top office received a cold call from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. It was interested in funding music scholarships for From the Top records performances by young people at top concert low-income performers. If the show would help find venues and distributes them to a radio, podcast, and Internet them, the foundation would also match production audience of over 600,000—more than any other classical-music show. costs dollar for dollar. This donor ex machina was met with gratitude, but also some skepticism. Some people worried From the Top would have trouble finding world-class artists, O’Riley notes. “The health of our significant numbers of disadvantaged students at the culture is in their hands.” same high-skill level as the players they were used From the Top debuted in 2000 on 100 stations. to featuring. It turned out, however, that more than Within a year it had more than doubled that stable enough outstanding performers could be located. of outlets and become one of the most popular Within one year, the skeptics were won over. programs on NPR. The infectious enthusiasm shown The Cooke Foundation “changed the heartbeat of by the youthful performers is a shot in the arm for our organization,” says Slavet. It continually underlined listeners, for established musicians, and for classical the mission that regardless of who you are, “with music as a profession. The show has helped launch discipline, passion, and focus, you can do anything.” numerous careers. Kevin Olusola, for instance—cellist, Its grants to From the Top total $8 million to date, over saxophonist, and co-founder of the hit singing group $2.5 million of that for direct scholarships. Pentatonix—credits it with giving him the courage to “Everything I am doing now and have done abandon pre-med studies and focus on music. for many years was made possible by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation,” says Alice Burla. Like Jack The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation changed Kent Cooke, Alice was born in Ontario to parents from elsewhere. Jewish immigrants from the Soviet the heartbeat of our organization, Union, they were a deeply musical family and soon showing how great talent can come realized that little Alice had musical talent unlike anything they had seen. At the age of five she won from great disadvantage. a national piano competition. At six she was the
24 PHILANTHROPY The rapport between sometimes very young performers and concert-pianist host Christopher O’Riley is a highlight of the show.
youngest student ever accepted into Juilliard. The Thanks to this multi-year Cooke support, she now Burla family uprooted itself a second time, Alice’s studies at the Musik Akademie Basel in Switzerland mother and brother accompanying her to the U.S. and travels all over the world to perform. It is her Her mother’s lack of citizenship made it hard to perfect life. “The moment when I learned that piano is get a job, but she scraped together a small income something you could do as a job, I remember thinking, teaching piano lessons. They often went without ‘But how is this possible?’ I never thought of it as work basic necessities, but Alice studied away. because it was so easy to love.” Her first appearance on From the Top came when Like Taiga Ultan, Alice Burla says From the Top she was ten. Looking half that age, the tiny girl with helped her discover her own musical voice, giving her pigtails in a green velvet dress skittered through an new poise and skills to connect with audiences on a arrangement of the frenetic “Ride of the Valkyries,” her personal level. Having been lifted up by several forms of hands flying up and down the keys as if channeling the charitable support, she is now using her gifts to lift up witchy spirits portrayed in the music. In subsequent others. For the past few years she’s been playing benefit years, Alice was brought back to appear on From the concerts for Medair, a charity that aids refugees. Top again and again. In addition to her Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award she eventually received Fugue several other Cooke scholarships to support her Another of Jack Kent Cooke’s American transplants Caitlin Cunningham; Neale Eckstein Cunningham; Caitlin education through high school and college. walks into Carnegie Hall and does a double-take.
SUMMER 2018 25 Two years ago, when Alison Addie first encountered From the Top, she never dreamed that it would bring her as a soloist to Carnegie Hall—shortly after enduring surgery for “a whole different face.”
26 PHILANTHROPY “That’s my face! On every program on every chair!” exclaims cellist Masha Zabara. A Young Artist alumna, she had no idea she would be the poster child at today’s taping and performance. She just came by to support the new members of the From the Top family. corrected as soon as she was grown. And yet she picked Masha arrived in the U.S. from Belarus knowing up, of all instruments, the flute. It was originally just absolutely no one. But music soon changed that and a distraction for her when she was sidelined from gave her a sense of belonging. The first time she set basketball with an injury. As she spent more time with foot in an American airport, “I saw the entire world music, though, it became central to her life. in a single room.” The “new people...new ideas... Looming over her, however, was the reality that new cultures,” the high pace and constant activity, she was soon going to have her mouth rebuilt. There the vast opportunities open to individuals—these was the possibility this would end her love affair had powerful effects on her, seemingly expressing with the flute, just as she had never been able to universal human yearnings she had felt in her fully return to basketball. playing but not yet seen in reality. In this country, Determined to keep up momentum, Alison though, anything seemed possible. designed a flute “boot camp” for herself to work on The air of possibility pervades the place this while her jaw healed. She read four flute textbooks. day. Downstairs, a family of tourists including a She studied orchestral scores and the history behind nine-year-old violinist poke their heads in the them. She practiced fingering techniques throughout door for no other reason than to “say we set foot in the day. Carnegie Hall.” Ten floors above, a group of young Finally she was cleared to play again. She did artists are getting ready to perform. The ghosts of so, however, “with a whole different face.” When she donors past and present swirl around them: Their first blew into her flute nothing came out. She spent concert will take place in the Weill Music Room of a profoundly discouraging year in recovery. During the Resnick Education Wing at Andrew Carnegie’s hallowed hall. Backstage, 17-year-old flutist Alison Addie The moment I learned that piano is is trying to calm her nerves. She takes eight steps something you could do as a job, backward, pivots, and repeats. Her teacher taught her this secret: Walking in reverse inevitably feels so I remember thinking, “But how is this ridiculous, you’re almost guaranteed to laugh at some point, releasing tension. Alison, who struggles with possible?” I never thought of it as work anxiety, can use every little relaxation trick available. because it was so easy to love. Alone among the players at this show, Alison is the first musician in her family. When the other kids complain about their moms or dads hovering her darkest moments, she clung to the thought that over them with technical critiques during practice, “The flute is it for me, and that’s what I’m going she can’t relate. She doesn’t go to Juilliard or to spend the rest of my life doing.” Even as she Interlochen; she goes to public school in Louisville, adjusted physically, she struggled mentally. Her Kentucky, where she came into contact with From flute was a great solace, sometimes thought of as her the Top in 2016 thanks to its tradition of traveling truest friend. “I know that because I can play, I will the country to tape live shows, uncovering local never be alone.” talent in the process. Today, several seasons and much hard work Despite her differences, she feels quite at home later, she floats onstage at Carnegie Hall in a floral with the group. These are serious musicians, deeply ballgown, a standout among the other black-clad in love with their art, and driven to continually performers. She plays a movement from Robert improve with a force that can only come from Muczynski’s flute sonata—a piece Christopher within. Alison knows that force well. It carried O’Riley dubs a “reincarnation of stress.” The jagged her through the terrifying experience of a jaw alternation between aggressive and lyrical passages, reconstruction not two years ago. explains Alison, is more than just music. It expresses By the time Alison was in middle school, it became her own story.
From the Top P clear that a severe underbite would have to be surgically She finishes to thunderous applause.
SUMMER 2018 27