KAY BUCKSBAUM NOMINATED FOR CHAIR OF THE BOARD
OF THE ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL
Full board will vote on officer nominations at its next regular meeting on June 29
Bucksbaum with her husband Matthew has been involved with the AMFS
for more than three decades
Bucksbaum has significant experience with the AMFS board and on other major
cultural and university boards
ASPEN, COLO.— The Aspen Music Festival and School announced today that the nominating committee of the board of trustees has nominated Kay Bucksbaum as chair of the board of trustees of the AMFS, and she has accepted this nomination. The full board of trustees will meet on June 29, 2010 to vote on its new officers, including Bucksbaum. Prior to that meeting, Bucksbaum will work with the nominating committee to develop a slate of other officers.
If elected, Bucksbaum would replace Acting Chair Mike Murray who is serving temporarily after the full board voted to remove the sitting board chair at a special meeting on June 7, 2010.
“We are incredibly fortunate to have someone as deeply committed and experienced as Kay accept the nomination for board chair,” says Murray. “She has a long and deep association with the festival and she and her husband have been its strongest supporters in many ways, giving the lead gifts for both the last capital campaign and the current campaign to redevelop the Castle Creek Campus. Kay and Matthew have been dedicated volunteers serving on the board and in key volunteer roles for dozens of years. Kay has the passion and knowledge to bring strength, stability and leadership to the board at this critical time.”
“The festival is one of the most important institutions in my life,” Kay Bucksbaum says, “and I am honored to have been given this nomination. Matthew and I have spent 57 years enjoying the wonderful students, and the music of the festival, and watching the institution develop into the internationally renowned classical music organization that it is today. It would give me deep satisfaction to lead at this pivotal point in the festival’s history.”
Kay and Matthew Bucksbaum have been supporters of the Aspen Music Festival and School for more than three decades and are the institution’s largest lifetime donors. Among other gifts, they gave the lead gift of $5 million for the Benedict Music Tent in 1997 and have committed the lead gift to redevelop and construct a planned new campus to be called the Bucksbaum Campus.
Kay has considerable leadership experience on boards, having been the first woman to chair the Grinnell College Board of Trustees. She has also served as chair of the board of the Des Moines Symphony Association and vice-chair of the NPR Foundation. Her husband Matthew joined the AMFS board in 1985 and served as chair from 1999 to 2002 and from 2005 to 2006; he was made a life trustee in 2002. Kay is a current AMFS board member. The Bucksbaums have been visiting Aspen since 1953 and own a home in the community.
Kay and Matthew have two grown children: Ann Bucksbaum Friedman is the board chair of the SEED Foundation, the nation’s first inner-city, college-prep, public boarding school. She is also on the boards of the National Symphony Orchestra, Conservation International and the public television station WETA. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband Thomas Friedman and their daughters Orly and Natalie. The couple’s son John Bucksbaum is the chairman of General Growth Properties, Inc. and is married to Jacolyn Bucksbaum. They have two sons, Max and Eli.
The Aspen Music Festival and School was founded in 1949 by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke and is now the United States’ premier classical music festival. It presents more than 350 musical events during its eight-week summer season. The institution draws top classical musicians from around the world for an unparalleled combination of performances and musical education. More than 50 percent of events are free and seating on the David Karetsky Music Lawn and in the Music Garden is always free.
The AMFS has five orchestras composed of top professionals and music students, many already beginning their professional careers. Hailing from 34 states and 41 countries, the 635 students begin vying for a spot as early as October of the previous year. Renowned alumni include violinists Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Robert McDuffie, Midori, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Gil Shaham; pianists Ingrid Fliter, Orli Shaham and Joyce Yang; conductors Marin Alsop, James Conlon, James Levine and Leonard Slatkin; composers William Bolcom, Philip Glass, Bright Sheng and Joan Tower; vocalists Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw; cellists Lynn Harrell and Alisa Weilerstein; performer Peter Schickele; and bassist Edgar Meyer.