UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title “First of All You Need a Good Foundation:” The Ford Foundation’s Program for Symphony Orchestras Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1dx9s2r3 Author Negley, Benjamin Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ “First of All You Need a Good Foundation:” The Ford Foundation’s Program for Symphony Orchestras A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in MUSIC by Benjamin Negley June 2019 The dissertation of Benjamin Negley is approved: __________________________________ Professor Amy C. Beal, chair __________________________________ Professor Leta Miller __________________________________ Professor Anatole Leikin __________________________________ Professor Robert Flanagan __________________________________ Lori G. Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Benjamin Negley 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ......................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ vii INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. HOW ORCHESTRAS ARE FUNDED IN THE UNITED STATES. .. 5 CHAPTER 2. THE FORD FOUNDATION AND THE PROGRAM IN THE HUMANITIES AND THE ARTS ........................................................................... 57 CHAPTER 3. THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM .............................. 109 CHAPTER 4. THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM IN CONTEXT: THE OAKLAND SYMPHONY .................................................................................... 146 CHAPTER 5. THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM IN CONTEXT: THE MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA ............................................................................... 200 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 251 APPENDIX 1. FINANAICAL POSITION OF THE FORD FOUNDATION, 1952 TO 1981 ................................................................................................................ 285 APPENDIX 2. WORKS PERFORMED BY GERHARD SAMUEL AS MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE OAKLAND SYMPHONY, 1959 TO 1971 ......................... 288 APPENDIX 3. FORD FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING THE PROGRAM FOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS .................................................. 295 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 321 iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLE 1.1: INCOME SOURCES AS PERCENTAGES OF TOTAL INCOME BY COUNTRY ..................................................................................................... 15 TABLE 1.2: ANNUAL PAY OF SYMPHONY MUSICIANS AND ORCHESTRA MANAGERS................................................................................................... 17 FIGURE 1.1: A FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE LOUISVILLE’S ORCHESTRA’S CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAM IN THE DECEMBER 10, 1955 EDITION OF THE NEW YORKER .............. 53 TABLE 2.1: INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RATE CHANGES FROM 1925 - 1940 AND APPROXIMATE TAX LIABILITY FOR AN INDIVIDUAL EARNING $10,000,000 ..................................................................................................... 60 TABLE 2.2: ESTATE TAX EXEMPTIONS AND RATES ..................................... 62 TABLE 2.3: OWNERSHIP OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY SHARES BEFORE AND AFTER 1956 INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING......................................... 92 TABLE 2.4: OPERAS PERFORMED BY THE NEW YORK CITY OPERA DURING SPRING 1958 WITH SUPPORT FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION ...................................................................................................................... 102 TABLE 3.1: FORD FOUNDATION PROGRAM IN THE HUMANITIES AND THE ARTS GRANTS 1957–72.............................................................................. 110 iv TABLE 3.2: PARTICIPANTS IN THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM ...................................................................................................................... 128 TABLE 3.3: DEVELOPMENT FUNDS USAGE AS A PERCENTAGE OF $4.1 MILLION TOTAL ........................................................................................ 132 TABLE 4.1: OAKLAND SYMPHONY MUSICIANS’ OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT IN 1966 ......................................................................................................... 151 TABLE 4.2: SALARY GROWTH OF OAKLAND SYMPHONY MUSICIANS FROM 1965 TO 1970 .................................................................................... 152 TABLE 4.3: GIFTS RELATED TO EDGAR KAISER AND KAISER COMPANIES DURING THE MATCHING PHASE OF THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM ................................................................................................... 171 TABLE 5.1: HISTORICAL MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA WAGE DATA ........... 219 TABLE 5.2: “WHAT OTHER ORCHESTRAS ARE DOING” ............................. 234 TABLE 5.3: TEN–YEAR BUDGET PROJECTION 1965–74: .............................. 239 TABLE 5.4: MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA ENDOWMENT AS OF FEBRUARY 28, 1977 .............................................................................................................. 243 TABLE 5.5: MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA INCOME STATEMENTS FOR 1973– 76: ................................................................................................................. 245 TABLE 6.1: WEEKS OF GUARANTEED EMPLOYMENT IN U.S. SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS ............................................................................................. 261 TABLE 6.2: HISTORICAL GROWTH IN MINIMUM ANNUAL SALARIES IN CURRENT DOLLARS ................................................................................. 264 v TABLE 6.3: HISTORICAL GROWTH IN MINIMUM ANNUAL SALARIES IN REAL DOLLARS (INFLATION-ADJUSTED FOR 2018)............................ 265 TABLE 6.4: BASE SALARIES OF EIGHT HIGHEST PAID SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS COMPARED TO BASE SALARIES OF LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TEACHERS ................................................................ 269 vi ABSTRACT “First of All You Need a Good Foundation:” The Ford Foundation’s Program for Symphony Orchestras Ben Negley In 1966, the Ford Foundation began an ambitious ten-year program to support North American symphony orchestras. Through a total investment of $80.2 million to sixty-one orchestras in the United States and Puerto Rico, the Ford Foundation sought to improve the economic conditions of orchestral musicians and assure the financial stability of individual orchestral institutions. Toward this goal, the Ford Foundation issued both expendable funds, distributed during the first five years of the program, and endowment funds, which were released at the end of the program and contingent on the orchestras matching the foundation’s contributions. Building on heightened public interest in symphonic music, the Ford Foundation’s Program for Symphony Orchestras contributed to the growth and success of American orchestras in the 1960s and 1970s. In not only enhancing the level of standing associated with orchestral musicians and orchestral institutions, but also encouraging orchestras to develop and improve fundraising mechanisms, the Ford Foundation made an unprecedented bet on the success of orchestral music in North America. This dissertation investigates the Ford Foundation’s support of orchestras in the 1960s and 1970s within postwar American culture, and examines how the Ford Foundation’s Program for Symphony Orchestras intertwined with local factors to transform individual orchestras. I focus on two divergent grantees: the Oakland vii Symphony Orchestra, which eventually declared bankruptcy in the late 1980s, and the Minnesota Orchestra, which raised more endowment matching funds than any other grantee orchestra. Based on interviews and archival research, these case studies show how the efficacy of the Program for Symphony Orchestras depended greatly on local factors. Furthermore, I consider the longer-term effects of the program, and the prospects for a similar program today. viii INTRODUCTION Act II of Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George is set in an 1980s-era art gallery, where an emerging artist named George displays his avant-garde light “sculpture:” “Chromolume #7,” a reflection on George Seurat’s celebrated Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. A coterie of revelers, critics, collectors, and philanthropists hover as George grumbles: “Art isn’t easy / even when you’re hot / advancing art is easy / financing it is not.” George imagines a simpler time—presumably the French fin de siècle—when artists could focus on their art instead of fundraising. Introduced to a glad-handing philanthropist, George laments: “First of all you need a good foundation / otherwise it’s risky from the start.” Sondheim’s double entendre nimbly articulates a verity about making art in the United States: it requires not only artistic ability, but also a certain knack for fundraising and self-promotion; George’s “good foundation” is more than just a grounding in the techniques of visual art. It is also an institutional web of financial support—in this case a charitable foundation—that makes his art possible. Sondheim’s fictional George is certainly not the first creative person to