In Friday’s (5/16) Boston Globe, Geoff Edgers writes about a Boston event that has been “sold out for months,” a concert featuring “a Beethoven sonata performed by world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Buttenwieser. Paul Buttenwieser? Most board members get testimonial speeches and plaques when they step down. On Friday, Buttenwieser marks the end of a decade as board chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Art by playing piano to accompany Yo-Yo Ma.… Buttenwieser’s unorthodox exit has Boston’s cultural community buzzing…. Buttenwieser, 78, a Belmont psychiatrist … has played a central role for almost a dozen nonprofit organizations” in Boston, including the Boston Ballet, Berklee College of Music, Museum of Fine Arts, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served on the search committee that resulted in the hiring of Andris Nelsons as music director. “His volunteer work grew over the years, as he found it hard to say no…. He and his wife started the Family-to- Family Project in 1988, a nonprofit that helps families struggling financially. ‘I think it just gives me more a sense that we’re all one big huge community and within that an arts community,’ says Buttenwieser. ‘Board service expands your life hugely.’ ”
Posted May 16, 2014
