“Nicky Carpenter did everything with gusto,” writes Rohan Preston in Wednesday’s (8/23) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “Carpenter, 82, who died Aug. 14 in Plymouth [Minnesota] … served as the Minnesota Orchestra’s board chairwoman from 1990 to 1995. In that time, she was instrumental in solving a budget crisis, strengthening the orchestra’s endowment and hiring music director Eiji Oue. Twenty years later, she played an important role [as] a member of the negotiating committee during the orchestra’s rancorous 15-month labor lockout … in 2014 … advocating a compromise … and reaching out to musicians in back-channel meetings. Carpenter, a lifetime board member, was quick to help heal the breach between musicians and management when the orchestra took a historic trip to Cuba the next year…. Minnesota Opera, MacPhail Center for Music, Minnesota Public Radio, Twin Cities Public Television and the League of American Orchestras also benefited from her expertise…. Born Josephine Bremer Benz in St. Paul to philanthropists George and Louise Bremer Benz, she … [graduated] from St. Paul Academy [and] studied European history at Vassar College, minoring in German…. As a longtime regent of St. John’s University in Collegeville, she also was an ardent supporter of the Saint John’s [handwritten and illuminated] Bible.”
Posted August 25, 2017
