In Friday’s Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky), Lexington-based business owner Tom Dupre Sr. explains his recent decision to donate $150,000 to the Lexington Philharmonic. “In 1963, I moved my family business, Dupree & Co., to Lexington … just a year or so after the founding of the Lexington Philharmonic. It was an exciting time to be in Lexington and imagine all the possibilities for our city, my family business and the burgeoning cultural landscape. Dupree & Co. has prospered and grown with Lexington by understanding a basic principle for success—innovation.… In my experience, innovation is a must; it creates opportunity and enables productive change.… Over the last several years, the Lexington Philharmonic has brought this same spirit of innovation both to its musical programs and its engagement with the community, and taken it far beyond the concert hall. In the last five years, it has launched a nationally recognized program to commission new works from emerging American composers, gained the participation and respect of internationally acclaimed music artists, developed a quarter of its programming for new music and devoted significant resources to music education…. When our cultural institutions excel, so too does Lexington.”
Posted March 14, 2014
