Portrait of a Patron

It’s not that most wealthy supporters of classical music don’t like new and challenging works. It’s just that, well, we all love our Beethoven, don’t we, and so many of these young composers nowadays just insist on writing the most horrid, unlistenable stuff, and who wants to throw their money away on that? Kathryn Gould is an exception to the rule. An amateur musician and devoted lover of new music, she is pumping large amounts of her money into an effort to create a ‘renaissance of new music’ in Northern California. Her efforts will result in multiple high-profile performances of new works by orchestras around the Bay Area, at a time when most organizations are cutting back on commissioning.