Charles Ansbacher Award Request for Nominations2013

1. The Second Annual Charles Ansbacher Music for All Award
2013 Request for Nominations
Award
The Charles Ansbacher Music for All Award, sponsored by the Free for All Concert Fund, will recognize one
individual annually who has demonstrated a commitment to bringing free, high-quality classical music to all
people in a particular geographic setting. Nominees whose work includes music as a conduit for bringing
reconciliation and compassion to underserved communities will be preferred this year. The recipient may be a
conductor, music director, administrator, musician, or other related professional who is dedicated to improving
humanity through classical music.
The recipient will be honored at the Reconciliation Concert performed at the Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s
Festival at the Hatch Shell, reaching a live audience of 10,000 people in addition to the hundreds of thousands
who will partake online. The recipient will also receive a $5,000 cash award directed to an affiliated public
charity associated with his or her work.
Nomination Proposal
Only those who receive this nomination packet will be eligible to submit a nomination. If you would like to
suggest a nominator, please provide his or her name(s) and contact information to Free for All Executive
Director Janna Schwartz at: jschwartz@freeforallconcertfund.org.
1. Fill out the attached cover page
2. Provide a CV/resume for the individual nominated and/or a separate summary of professional highlights
3. Provide a sample CD or link to online recording(s) affiliated with the nominee’s work
4. In no more than two pages, please address the following:
a. How has the nominee demonstrated a commitment to bringing free, high-quality classical music
to all people?
b. In what geographic setting has the individual focused (may be a specific community, city,
region, or country)?
c. What evidence can you provide that demonstrates the nominee has inspired people through his
or her work?
d. In what ways does the candidate embrace reconciliation and humanity in his or her work?
e. How has the nominee improved the lives of people in underserved communities?
Charles Ansbacher’s Vision of Classical Music:
Free for All Concert Fund Founder Charles Ansbacher pointed to the Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s programs
over the last decade as the guide. Selections were by and large in the traditional western classical music canon.
He also frequently included 20th century composers, such as Bernstein, Copland, and Prokofiev, whose music
he deemed accessible to the general public — that is, “hum a few bars” tuneful. While Charles certainly
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2. respected contemporary classical music, his priority was preserving the more traditional repertoire and
“helping people develop an ear for Mozart.”
All materials are due January 14, 2013 to Natalie Nayler at:
nnayler@freeforallconcertfund.org
Electronic submissions are preferred, but you may send supplementary materials to:
Natalie Nayler, Senior Development Associate
The Free for All Concert Fund
168 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Key Dates
December 19, 2012: Request for nominations issued
January 14, 2013: Nominations due
End of January: Nomination committee convenes
February 12, 2013: Free for All board approves committee recommendation
Summer 2013: Award presented
About the Free for All Concert Fund
Mission
The Free for All Concert Fund, an independent grant-making foundation, ensures that everyone from the Boston
region — children, adults, families — will have regular and permanent access to the rich world of classical,
orchestral music and related cultural events.
Background
The Free for All Concert Fund was created to support and encourage the presentation of high-quality music in
perpetuity. With steady income from a first-phase endowment goal of $20 million, grants will flow to excellent
organizations bringing music and related cultural events to the general public. Free for All is careful to provide
such opportunities to those who otherwise would not have such privileges.
A decade ago, Charles Ansbacher created the Boston Landmarks Orchestra to provide concerts at no cost to the
people in the region. In addition, Ansbacher created the Free for All Concert Fund, an independent foundation,
to give grants to organizations including the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.
To learn more about the Free for All Concert Fund, visit: www.freeforallconcertfund.org
About the Reconciliation Concert
The annual Reconciliation Concert represents the living legacy of the friendship between Charles Ansbacher,
founder of the Free for All Concert Fund, and Tuan Nguyen, founder of VietNamNet, the prestigious online
newspaper in Vietnam, reaching an audience of 6 million viewers. The first Reconciliation Concert was held on
April 22, 2010 at the Hanoi Opera House, during a critical period of Maestro Ansbacher’s battle with brain
cancer. VietNamNet created a coalition of sponsors for the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in the belief
that music can help build a world of tolerance and love. The Maestro became the first American to conduct the
Vietnam National Symphony, and was eager to continue a close collaboration with Mr. Nguyen.
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3. The second annual Reconciliation Concert was held on August 10, 2011 at John Hancock Hall in Boston. Tuan
Nguyen and Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Free for All trustee and wife of the late Charles Ansbacher, spoke from
the stage about the need for a commitment to worldwide reconciliation. This concert was recorded and presented
online, reaching an audience of 250,000 unique listeners, from the United States to Vietnam.
The third annual Reconciliation Concert took place in Boston on July 11, 2012. The Boston Landmarks
Orchestra performed to a crowd of 10,000 people at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, celebrating
the universal healing power of music. The program featured works by American composer Aaron Copland, and
included distinguished visitors from Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The fourth annual Reconciliation Concert and presentation of the second annual Charles Ansbacher Music for
All Award will also take place during the Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s Festival at the Hatch Shell in the
summer of 2013.
The Free for All Concert Fund is proud and honored to carry on the visionary commitment of Maestro Charles
Ansbacher and Tuan Nguyen.
About the Inaugural Charles Ansbacher Music for All Award Winner
The focus of the inaugural award was celebrating reconciliation in areas of conflict. The recipient was Armand
Diangienda, the inspiring founder and conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste in the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Armand has built his symphony orchestra from the ground up, literally
transforming his home into a make-shift conservatory. Full of self-taught musicians, many of whom travel two
hours by foot for rehearsals and play on home-made instruments, this orchestra’s very existence provides hope
and promotes peace in a country full of poverty and war -and is the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa.
Diangienda was the focus of a “60 Minutes” profile, as well as a film which premiered at the New York African
Film festival.
About Charles Ansbacher (October 5, 1942-September 12, 2010)
On September 12, 2010, the Free for All Concert Fund founder and visionary, Maestro Charles Ansbacher,
“went ahead” (to use his daughter’s phrase). Although knowing for months that he had an incurable brain tumor,
Charles courageously continued his life’s mission of bringing free orchestral music to diverse audiences. Even
after he was diagnosed, he conducted for more than 100,000 people, including — with his Landmarks Orchestra
— the first-ever symphony orchestra concert in Boston’s Fenway Park and the 2010 season of Beethoven on the
Charles River Esplanade. He also traveled to Hanoi, and was the first American to lead the Vietnam National
Symphony. In addition, the maestro made return performances in such faraway places as Sarajevo, Bosnia;
Beirut, Lebanon; and Chisinau, Moldova; and also shared his music close to home at Harvard’s Sanders Theater.
Charles took up cello as a boy and began by conducting a Mahler piece with his high school orchestra in
Burlington, Vermont. His parents encouraged his study by sending him to Greenwood Music Camp and to the
Tanglewood Music Center. He majored in physics at Brown University but switched to music after creating a
successful chamber orchestra with his classmates. He studied music at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and
at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. After short stints teaching and conducting, he moved to Colorado, where
he helped build not only the Colorado Springs Symphony, but also the acoustically superior Pikes Peak Center
for the Performing Arts.
In 1976, Maestro Ansbacher took a leave of absence and moved to Washington, D.C., where he served as
special assistant to the secretary of transportation, and in the White House with “Joan of Arts” Mondale, wife of
the vice president. There, he was influential in pushing forward a bill allowing a percentage of federal funds
dedicated to mass transit projects to be spent on the arts. Ansbacher returned to Colorado where his interest in
design and architecture led to his appointment by Federico Peña, Denver’s first Hispanic mayor, to the Blue
Ribbon Committee for the design of the new Denver International Airport. Roy Romer, governor of Colorado,
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4. also selected him as chair of the state’s Council on the Arts and Humanities. In 2010 Mayor Hickenlooper
dedicated the Charles Ansbacher Hall, which connects the terminal with Concourse A, in recognition of the
maestro’s involvement in the airport’s planning.
During the course of his career, Maestro Ansbacher led major orchestras in more than 40 countries. From 1995,
he focused his international work on countries in economic or political transition, such as Colombia,
Kyrgyzstan, and Serbia. In 2004, he conducted the world premiere of the Mandela Portrait in Johannesburg,
South Africa. The next year he led the Jerusalem Symphony with Palestinian soloist Saleem Abboud Ashkar. In
Russia, the Moscow Symphony named Maestro Ansbacher guest conductor.
Uncharacteristically for conductors, Ansbacher served on many boards of directors throughout his career, often
with organizations unrelated to music. Such boards included the World Affairs Council and Urban League in
Colorado Springs; the Public Education Coalition in Denver; and in his last adopted city, GlobalPost, First
Night, Commonwealth School, and the International Institute of Boston. For 25 years, he served as treasurer of
Hunt Alternatives Fund, a private family foundation.
His final foray into public policy and the arts was the creation of the Free for All Concert Fund. This permanent
endowment was created to support free classical orchestral concerts and related activities that are accessible and
friendly to families in every neighborhood in the Boston area.
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