Carnegie Hall Receives $10 Million Challenge Grant from Joan and Sanford I. Weill

Carnegie Hall today announced that it has received a $10 million challenge grant from Joan and Sanford I. Weill and The Weill Family Foundation toward its Studio Towers Renovation Project, a comprehensive undertaking that will create new inspirational spaces for music education on the landmark building's existing upper floors while also fully refurbishing the venue's backstage areas.

The project, scheduled to be completed and opened in 2014, will be transformational for Carnegie Hall, creating new facilities designed to help make great music accessible to as many people as possible. This includes the new 61,000-square foot Judith B. and Burton P. Resnick Education Wing atop the building with ensemble rooms, practice rooms, and teaching studios as well as a state-of-the-art home for Carnegie Hall's Archives. Collectively, these facilities will provide a wonderful new setting in which to inspire a lifelong love of music in young musicians, students, and educators.

"Joan and I are so excited about this project, and the many new ways that it will help Carnegie Hall to evolve to serve artists and audiences for decades to come," said Sanford I. Weill, Carnegie Hall's Chairman. "We're grateful to everyone who has joined us in getting involved with this campaign. Together, for the first time ever, we can create spaces specially dedicated to music education at Carnegie Hall, supporting programs that make a meaningful difference in the lives of more and more people in New York City and around the world." Mr. Weill, a trustee since 1983, has been Carnegie Hall's chairman since 1991. In 2003, a major endowment gift from the Weills established Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute which develops the Hall's wide range of music education and community programs that serve people from all walks of life in New York City, across the country, and around the globe.

The grant announced today challenges Carnegie Hall to raise two times the $10 million by September 30, 2013 for a total of $30 million toward the Hall's capital campaign. To date, nearly half of the funds needed to meet the challenge has been raised, and more than $209 million has been raised overall in support of the $230 million renovation project. This $10 million challenge grant-to be matched by $9 million in recently-received pledges and $11 million still to be raised-would complete fundraising for this project, which is so important in the development of Carnegie Hall's future. Among the pledges received toward the overall campaign to date are a previously-announced $25 million leadership gift from the Weills, a $10 million major gift from Judith and Burton Resnick, and significant funding from New York City and New York State. The total also includes $56.5 million in net proceeds from bonds issued through the Trust for Cultural Resources from the City of New York.

"Joan and Sandy have shown such tremendous leadership with this campaign, and we thank them for their extraordinary generosity," said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall's Executive and Artistic Director. "Their passion for this project is clearly rooted in their longtime commitment to music education, their belief in the power that Carnegie Hall has to bring all kinds of people together through music, and their desire that Carnegie Hall remain at the center of the world's cultural stage through the twenty-first century."