“The Juilliard School said Thursday that it has received a $5 million gift from board member Michael E. Marks and his wife, Carole, to create a new program aimed at developing students’ entrepreneurship and business skills,” writes Brian Wise on Thursday (1/22) at classical radio station WQXR’s news blog. “Called the Alan D. Marks Center for Career Services and Entrepreneurship, the program is named after Michael Marks’s brother, a pianist who graduated from Juilliard in 1971 and who died in 1995 of cancer…. The center is intended to develop the kinds of skills students need to create their own concert series or outreach programs…. The center will award a number of annual grants of up to $10,000 aimed at supporting innovative projects, the result of an additional $50,000 gift from financial adviser Norman Benzaquen…. Just as Juilliard was unveiling its initiative, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a prominent new music group, had announced that it has received a $450,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new initiative aimed at developing new audiences through ‘artist-driven programming that is free and open to the public.’ Called OpenICE, the three-year program is intended to help the ensemble reach underserved audiences and, according to ICE, generate 150 new concerts and more than 60 commissioned works over the next three years. Founded in 2001 by flutist Claire Chase, ICE is based jointly in New York and Chicago.”
The new issue of Symphony magazine reports on entrepreneurial programs at conservatories and music schools nationwide.
Posted January 23, 2015
