REDCAT Celebrates The Late Betty Freeman 5/5

In January of 2009, the new music world lost one of its greatest champions. The late philanthropist, photographer and writer Betty Freeman was without question the most significant American advocate for contemporary classical music in the second half of the 20th century. In her will, Ms. Freeman requested that no funeral be held, but instead a party be thrown in her memory. REDCAT is delighted to honor Ms. Freeman's request with Party for Betty!, a celebration of the life, work and legacy of Betty Freeman held at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 8:30 pm.

"I cannot think of many individuals whose actions would have had a more profound effect on our art form or culture in general." Esa-Pekka Salonen

Beginning in the early 1960s and continuing for more than four decades, she gave some 450 grants and commissions to composers such as John Cage, Lou Harrison, La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams and Pierre Boulez. A singular connoisseur, she was especially famous for her Beverly Hills salons--attended by the who's who of avant-garde music--and for once housing a destitute Harry Partch.

The repertoire for this evening features landmark works by Cage, Harrison, Partch, Helmut Lachenmann and James Tenney--many commissioned by Freeman--while the performers include Jacqueline Bobak, Stuart Fox, Ulrich Kreiger, John Schneider's ensemble Partch, Mark Trayle and others.

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Party for Betty Program

Conlon Nancarrow: 3 Two-Part Studies (1940); Danny Holt, piano
Harry Partch: Three Intrusions (1950); John Schneider, guitar; Erin Barnes, Diamond Marimba
Earle Brown: Four Systems (1954); Ulrich Krieger, saxophone; Stuart Fox, guitar; Clay Chaplin, Mark Trayle, laptops   
Lou Harrison: Serenade for Guitar and Percussion (1978); John Schneider, guitar; T.J. Troy, percussion
James Tenney: Song and Dance for Harry Partch , Movement 2: "Mallets in the Air" (1999); Erin Barnes, Diamond Marimba; Cassia Streb, Orin Hildestad, Eric km Clark, April Guthrie, string quartet

-- Intermission --

John Cage: Selected Freeman Etudes (1977-1990); Andrew Tholl, Andrew McIntosh, violin solo
Morton Feldman: King of Denmark (1964); Lydia Martin, percussion
György Kurtág: Six Pieces for Trombone and Piano (1999); Matt Barbier, trombone; Josh Foy, piano
Helmut Lachenmann: Guero (1970/88); Emi Tamura, piano
Steve Reich: Vermont Counterpoint (1982) Christine Tavolacci, flute
                   
Selections from John Cage's Song Books (1972) will be performed by vocalists led by Jacqueline Bobak during set changes and intermission.

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Party for Betty!  is presented at REDCAT on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $20 ($16 for students with current I.D.) and are available at www.redcat.org or by calling 213.237.2800. REDCAT is located at the corner of W. 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex (631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012).

BIOGRAPHY
Betty Freeman (June 3, 1921 - January 4, 2009) was an American philanthropist and photographer. She was best known as an arts patron, and was regarded as the most significant American sponsor of contemporary classical music of the second half of the 20th century.

Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of three she moved with her parents and two brothers to Brooklyn, attending high school in New Rochelle, New York. Her father, who had been born in Russia, was a chemical engineer who had graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and her mother was a mathematics teacher and graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Betty Freeman was a graduate of Wellesley College (1942), where she majored in English literature with a minor in music. She had originally trained to be a concert pianist, practicing six to eight hours per day for twenty years, but eventually, by the mid-1960s, gave up this dream to pursue concert managing. Following her graduation she married and had four children, then later divorced and married the Italian sculptor and painter Franco Assetto (1911-1991), with whom she lived half of each year in Turin.

As of 2003, Freeman had made (since 1961) 432 grants and commissions to 81 composers, often early in their careers. The composers she assisted include Lou Harrison, John Cage, La Monte Young, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Harrison Birtwistle, Virgil Thomson, Helmut Lachenmann, and Kaija Saariaho. John Cage dedicated his Freeman Etudes to her (although she did not commission them), Lou Harrison dedicated his Serenade for Betty Freeman and Franco Assetto to Freeman and her husband, Steve Reich dedicated Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards (1979) and Vermont Counterpoint (1982) to her, and John Adams's opera Nixon in China (1985-87) was dedicated to her. The American gamelan Si Betty, built by Harrison and William Colvig in 1979, was named for Freeman. Bequeathed by Harrison to long-time collaborator and composer Jody Diamond, it has been housed at Harvard University since 2007. In 1972 Freeman produced a documentary film about the composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, entitled The Dreamer That Remains. She wrote books about the American artists Clyfford Still and Sam Francis. She was also an art collector. She lived in Beverly Hills, California and died in Los Angeles, California on January 4, 2009, at the age of 87. (Biography from Wikipedia)

ABOUT REDCAT
Opened by CalArts in 2003, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT is the newest partner in an international network of adventurous art and performance centers, which together are playing a vital role in the evolution of contemporary culture. REDCAT is a center for experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse. For more information, visit www.redcat.org.

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