Monday (1/24) on the New York Times blog ArtsBeat, Daniel J. Wakin reports, “The brother of Robert Mann—a founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet and a major figure in American chamber music—has donated $6 million to endow chairs in Mr. Mann’s name. The money will establish chairs at the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Mann, 90, has taught since 2006, and at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Mr. Mann’s brother, Alfred E. Mann, 85, an entrepreneur, started in the aerospace business and moved into biomedical and pharmaceutical products. He founded his first aerospace company, Spectrolab, in 1956, 10 years after the Juilliard Quartet began. Robert Mann retired from the quartet in 1997. He does not teach at Thornton, but his brother is a trustee of the University of Southern California, said a Manhattan School spokeswoman, Debra Kinzler. He will occupy the chair, in violin and chamber music, at Manhattan, she said.”
Posted January 26, 2011
