Juilliard gets big grant in name of Seattle Symphony’s director
Published 9:00 pm Friday, April 14, 2006
NEW YORK – The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has given $500,000 to The Juilliard School in the name of two alumni, Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz and his wife, Jody.
The scholarship was presented earlier this week at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall during a concert by the Juilliard Orchestra with Schwarz as guest conductor.
The grant establishes an endowed scholarship that will annually benefit a student in the school’s music division.
“Gerry and Jody Schwarz are such positive and enthusiastic friends of Juilliard, and are together such a compelling force for the rightful place of the arts in our society,” Anthony Newman, the school’s vice president for development and public affairs, said in a statement.
Schwarz has spent 21 years as the Seattle Symphony’s music director. He received a bachelor of music degree from Juilliard in 1972 and a master’s degree in 1990. Jody Schwarz received a master’s degree from the school in 1982.
Simonyi is a former Microsoft Corp. executive who left the software company in August 2002 to found Intentional Software Corp. In 2003, he created his Seattle-based foundation, which has since made major donations to the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Public Library Foundation and Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study.
