Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Henry Wolking’S Ballet Forever Yesterday, Jeanne Belfy

Jeanne M. Belfy

Fifty years ago the Louisville Orchestra under conductor Robert Whitney embarked on a path of commissioning compositions by contemporary composers with civic and foundation support. One principal offshoot of the endeavor resulted in a historic recording project for new music, funded in part by a ground-breaking grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Ten years and over two hundred compositions later, the Louisville Orchestra had established both the basic framework for orchestral commissioning projects and a model for the collaboration of orchestras and private foundations in support of serious new music. By the 1990s, such activities are an assumed part of our …