The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $450,000 to Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin.
The grant will help Texas Performing Arts expand the depth and breadth of its classical music presentation and participation over three years. The project, the first Mellon Foundation award in Texas Performing Arts’ 30-year history, will support interdisciplinary programming, extended artist residencies, the commissioning of new work and the formation of a classical music task force.
One-third of the Mellon Foundation funding is conditioned on matching funds from new or increased contributions from individuals, corporations or foundations. The remaining Mellon Foundation grant support will be matched by Dean Douglas Dempster of the College of Fine Arts and university Executive Vice President and Provost Steven Leslie, bringing total funding for Texas Performing Arts’ classical music agenda to a total of $900,000.
“We are honored and deeply grateful for this extraordinary support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” said Texas Performing Arts Director and Associate Dean Kathy Panoff. “Through the broad range of activities outlined in this proposal, Texas Performing Arts hopes to inspire our community to appreciate classical music as a living, breathing, vibrant and ever-changing organism that has a remarkable capacity to respond to the needs of a fast-paced and progressive society.”
Texas Performing Arts will use these funds to expand its classical music programming, further its longstanding commitment to the commission and performance of new music, offer students unique residency opportunities with internationally renowned performing arts professionals, expand existing relationships with campus presenting partners and foster new bonds with campus colleges and departments.
“The ‘Live Music Capital’ can be and should be a force for reviving live audiences for concerts and ‘art music,’ as much as it is for popular and folk traditions,” said Dempster. “This prestigious grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a resounding affirmation of Director Kathy Panoff’s vision of The University of Texas and Austin as a creative hub for the next generation of classical music performance and presenting. Texas Performing Arts’ classical music initiative promises to bring a cutting-edge sophistication to the cultural life of our campus and community.”
