The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is delighted to announce a significant donation to its Capital Campaign from a major UK philanthropist.
Ian Stoutzker OBE has generously donated £500,000 towards the development of the Royal Welsh College’s estate to deliver a raft of new world class rehearsal and performance facilities. These include a 450- capacity chamber recital hall (the first purpose-built chamber recital hall in Wales), the 160-seat Richard Burton Theatre, four drama rehearsal studios and an exhibition gallery. The new facilities are scheduled to open to the public in June 2011.
Mr Stoutzker has had a lifetime of involvement in music from his own student days to being Chairman of world-renowned orchestras, and was the co-founder with the late Yehudi Menuuhin of Live Music Now.
Ian Stoutzker’s generous donation to the College is made in memory of his mother Dora (née Cohen), who was born in Tredegar 1897 in South Wales and spent the first twenty-five years of her life there until she married. In Tredegar she taught piano and singing. With her love of music she combined a love of Wales and the countryside, and these loves she passed on to her son. The College is proud and honored that its new Concert Hall will be named the Dora Stoutzker Hall.
The Principal of the College, Hilary Boulding, said:
“Ian Stoutzker has been unstinting in his support for so many young and talented musicians, particularly through his work for Live Music Now. We’re thrilled that, through his generosity, future generations of talented young musicians in Wales will have the opportunity to train and perform in exceptional facilities. It seems somehow very fitting that the College’s new recital hall will carry the name of a ‘valleys girl’ who worked hard to enable her own son to have the highest quality music education.’
Ian Stoutzker was born in London in 1929. As a boy during the Second World War he spent some time in Tredegar following the bombing of the family home in London, and attended Tredegar County School. After the war he continued his studies as a violinist at the Royal College of Music in London. He took a further degree as a night student at the London School of Economics and developed a successful business career. Among his many and various charitable works has been the establishment of Live Music Now in 1977 with his great friend Yehudi Menuhin.
Live Music Now is the largest and most successful music outreach programme of its kind in Europe. It employs hundreds of young music graduates at the start of their careers to perform and lead workshops for audiences with limited access to live music, including schools for children with special needs, residential care homes and young offenders institutions. He remains chairman of the scheme and has been responsible for its development over the years. Live Music Now now provides around 3000 workshops and performances annually throughout the UK, and there is a very active branch of the scheme based in Wales.
President of the College, Lord Rowe Beddoe said:
“Countless musicians and music organizations are indebted to Ian for his lifetime’s dedication to the highest quality music-making and music education. Ian is himself a most accomplished musician, but he has devoted much of his life to nurturing and supporting artistic talent in others. This significant donation to the College is so typical of him and I am delighted that through this extraordinary gesture Ian will rekindle his family connection with Wales.”
Dora died in 1968 and this dedication is Ian Stoutzker’s personal tribute to the love and support provided by his mother.
He has always been very active in his philanthropic support of the arts, based on his belief in providing meaningful and edifying musical experiences to the young and disadvantaged.
