“The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is known for having some of New York’s most loyal classical music audiences,” writes Brian Wise on Wednesday (10/21) at New York classical radio station WQXR. “One case of that loyalty has paid off in the form of a $4 million donation—the largest in its history. The Society announced the gift Tuesday night at Alice Tully Hall. The donor was Jane Kitselman, a long-time patron who died on March 18 at the age of 87. In response, the CMS plans to dedicate its upcoming Beethoven string quartet cycle to her, and to dedicate a concert to her every year. ‘We are enormously grateful to her and value the continued friendship of her family, who will certainly see the wonderful fruits of her bequest at work,’ said husband-and-wife artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han…. A longtime Upper West Side resident, Kitelsman was a cellist and devotee of string quartet literature, according to the CMS. She studied cello in Salzburg and Vienna, played in amateur chamber groups throughout much of her life, and was a longtime donor to arts groups like Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Speculum Musicae as well as the Society.”
Posted October 22, 2015
