In the Arts: Tech Billionaire a Force in Los Angeles Culture
September 2, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
Bloomberg profiles David Bohnett, the technology billionaire and arts patron who was instrumental in bringing star conductor Gustavo Dudamel to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Mr. Bohnett, who made his fortune with the 1999 sale of Web firm Geocities to Yahoo, also contributes $250,000 annually to the philharmonic and pledged $5-million to the current capital campaign of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he serves as a board member.
Since the Geocities sale, his foundation has donated more than $40-million to the arts and other causes, including gun control, animal rights, and gay and lesbian issues.
In other arts news, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra ran a $1.3-million deficit over its 2010-11 fiscal year, which ended Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes.
Symphony officials said it is “making important strides” toward closing a budget gap attributed largely to the fact that during the fiscal year that just ended, it received $1.7-million less in public funding than it did two years ago.
A new contract with musicians, which goes into affect Monday and includes a 9.7-percent pay cut this year, will save the group $1.6-million, according to board chairman Richard P. Simmons. Players also agreed to changes in their retirement plan.
