In Tuesday’s (6/16) San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman reports, “Betty J. Connors, who oversaw the presentation of performing arts at UC Berkeley for 35 years as director of the Committee for Arts and Lectures—later Cal Performances—died Thursday at her Richmond home of natural causes. She was 92. From 1945 to 1979, Ms. Connors ran the university’s program for presenting music, dance and theatrical events on campus—the first salaried employee responsible for undertaking a job formerly done by a faculty member. … Ms. Connors brought some of the world’s leading cultural figures to the Berkeley campus, including pianists Glenn Gould and Rudolf Serkin, harpsichordists Ralph Kirkpatrick and Gustav Leonhardt, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, soprano Birgit Nilsson, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, jazz artists Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong, and sitarist Ravi Shankar. Under her auspices, the San Francisco Opera gave regular performances at the Greek Theatre throughout the 1960s.”
Posted June 18, 2009
