RECENT GRANTS

Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston, MA
Boston Modern Orchestra Project's 20 Century Classics revives and preserves works by important American composers that have faded from the symphonic repertoire. The series, at the core of the organization's mission, presents high-profile public performances of works that are quickly fading from our collective cultural memory, ultimately preserving important American orchestral music. In addition to the public performances, BMOP actively records American music ensuring the broadest possible audience.

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Founded in 1869, the Corcoran Gallery of Art is one of the oldest museums in the United States and the largest privately supported cultural institution in the nation's capital. Its museum presents, interprets and preserves the art of our times and of times past; its college of art nurtures and helps shape new generations of artists and designers. Amongst its collection, the Corcoran owns an almost-complete set of Eadweard Muybridge's 781-plate masterpiece “Animal Locomotion.” A retrospective exhibition featuring every aspect of the 19th century British/American photographer Eadweard Muybridge's career will be on view from mid-January - April 2010. It will be the first to survey work from all of Muybridge's projects; no other museum exhibition has surveyed Muybridge's art as a continuous and meaningful body of work drawn from all primary collections.

Florida Grand Opera, Miami, FL
A production of Julius Caesar, which has not been performed in the U.S. in almost 20 years, in the musical tradition of Baroque opera that is rarely seen by audiences. Baroque was a ground-breaking musical form in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Though Baroque music is well known, Baroque opera is rare due to the vocal challenges it places on singers. Julius Caesar is only the second Baroque opera to be presented by Florida Grand Opera in its 67-year history.

Jazz Arts of the Mountain West, Murray, UT
This annual festival in the Salt Lake City area has a mission to expose the public to jazz. By presenting lesser-known jazz artists in addition to reinterpretations of classic jazz works, Jazz Arts of the Mountain West festival seeks to preserve the heritage of jazz music for many future generations to come. Additionally, the diversity of the festival's artists, as well as the audience in attendance, underscores the diversity of American culture and its art forms.

Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Since 1996, the Lincoln Center Festival has enriched New York City's cultural life by presenting a wide array of productions from around the world showcasing a full spectrum of performing arts disciplines. The Festival expands upon Lincoln Center's focus on Western classical tradition by incorporating classicism from other world cultures. This summer multi-cultural performing arts festival runs for three weeks with over 75 performances of theater, opera, music and dance by world-class artists and ensembles, and in 2009 will be a major component of Lincoln Center's 50th anniversary celebration.

Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, CA
Founded in 1935, The Old Globe is San Diego's largest and longest-standing performing arts institution with a diverse repertoire in its 15 annual productions. From June 13 to September 27, 2009, The Old Globe will produce Shakespeare's least-performed tragedy, Coriolanus. Coriolanus is based on the life of Roman leader Gaius Martius Coriolanus, and his rise and fall from public and political favor. Although Shakespeare is ubiquitious in North American theatre, Coriolanus is rarely produced. Fewer than 20% of theatres listed in a 2008 New York Times feature on summer festivals have ever staged this work, and the only previous production by a major theatre in Southern California was during The Old Globe's 1988 Shakespeare Festival.

Royal National Theatre, London, United Kingdom
The Royal National Theatre in London stages over twenty new productions each year. There are over 1,000 performances every year, given by a company of 150 actors to over 600,000 people. American Express grant funding supported a unique production of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre. The play, written by Tom Stoppard in collaboration with composer and conductor André Previn, was first staged in 1977 in the Royal Festival Hall in London as part of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee. Because of the technical challenges posed by bringing a full orchestra onstage with a cast of actors, this important work has rarely been performed since its premiere. By bringing Every Good Boy Deserves Favour back to the stage, the National Theatre brought to light a work in danger of being lost, and helped to ensure that a new generation of audiences would be able to experience the richness of Tom Stoppard and André Previn's innovative artistic vision.

INITIATIVES

Partners in Preservation