“The philanthropists Mark and Patricia Joseph said Tuesday that they are donating $1.2 million to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to bring the city’s poorest children to classical music concerts,” writes Mary Carole McCauley in Tuesday’s (6/28) Baltimore Sun. “The gift, which will target city schools with the highest numbers of low-income pupils, will more than triple the number of financially disadvantaged students who attend the orchestra’s popular midweek concert series for local schools—from 1,500 to 5,000 annually, Mark Joseph said…. A few years ago, [the couple] took three of their grandchildren to a youth concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. ‘I looked around … and it occurred to me that there apparently weren’t very many city youth attending these concerts,’ Mark Joseph said.… The Josephs’ gift includes $150,000 to start bringing kids to concerts as soon as school resumes in the fall; $1 million to create an endowment so the program can continue in perpetuity; and $50,000 to benefit OrchKids, the symphony program that provides music instruction and instruments for low-income pupils. Barbara Bozzuto, chairwoman of the symphony’s board of directors, said that she was impressed that the couple has structured their donation to have the maximum impact.”
Posted June 29, 2016
