Betty Freeman (2 June 1921 – 3 January 2009) was an American philanthropist and photographer.

Biography

Freeman was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. At age 3, she moved with her parents and two brothers to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, later moving to New Rochelle, New York and attending

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS) is a public high school in New Rochelle, New York. It is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its student body represents 60 countries from around the world. I ...

. Her father was a chemical engineer who had graduated from the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

, and her mother was a mathematics teacher and graduate of the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

. Freeman was a graduate of Wellesley College (1942), where she majored in English literature with a minor in music. She had originally trained to be a

concert pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, practicing six to eight hours per day for twenty years, but eventually, by the mid-1960s, gave up this dream to pursue concert managing. Following her graduation, she married Stanley Freeman, and the couple had four children. Their marriage ended in divorce. Freeman's second marriage was to the Italian sculptor and painter Franco Assetto (1911-1991), with whom she lived half of each year in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

and the remaining half in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. The marriage lasted until Assetto's death. Freeman was a long-standing supporter of contemporary music, with grants and commissions to various American composers early in their careers. The composers she assisted include

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

, John Cage, La Monte Young, Christopher Rouse, Philip Glass, Steve Reich,

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...

Anders Hillborg Per Anders Hillborg (born 31 May 1954) is one of Sweden’s leading composers. Education Anders Hillborg was born in Sollentuna, and studied composition, counterpoint and electronic music at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm from 1976 to ...

, Pierre Boulez,

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been associated with "instrumental musique concrète". Life and works Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of ...

, and

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Inte ...

. John Cage dedicated his ''

Freeman Etudes ''Freeman Etudes'' are a set of etudes for solo violin composed by John Cage. Like the earlier ''Etudes Australes'' for piano, these works are incredibly complex, nearly impossible to perform, and represented for Cage the "practicality of the impo ...

'' to her (although she did not commission them), Lou Harrison dedicated his ''Serenade for Betty Freeman and Franco Assetto'' to Freeman and her husband, Steve Reich dedicated ''Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards'' (1979) and ''Vermont Counterpoint'' (1982) to her, and John Adams's opera ''

Nixon in China ''Nixon in China'' is an opera in three acts by John Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams's first opera, it was inspired by U.S. president Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China. The work premiered at the Houston ...

'' (1985–87) was dedicated to her. The

American gamelan American gamelan could refer to both instruments and music; the term has been used to refer to gamelan-style instruments built by Americans, as well as to music written by American composers to be played on gamelan instruments. American gamelan ...

Si Betty, built by Harrison and

William Colvig William (Bill) Colvig (March 13, 1917 – March 1, 2000) was an electrician and amateur musician who was the partner for 33 years of composer Lou Harrison, whom he met in San Francisco in 1967. Colvig helped construct the American gamelan used in ...

in 1979, was named for Freeman. Bequeathed by Harrison to long-time collaborator and composer

Jody Diamond Jody Diamond (born Pasadena, California, April 23, 1953) is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a schola ...

, it has been housed at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

since 2007. She began a series of musicales at her Beverly Hills residence in 1981, which continued until just after the death of her second husband. Freeman financed a 1973 documentary film about the composer and instrument builder

Harry Partch Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...

, ''The Dreamer That Remains''. She subsequently developed an interest in photography. She wrote books about the American artists

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follow ...

and

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

. She was also an art collector, and the subject of

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

's painting '' Beverly Hills Housewife''. Freeman had four children from her first marriage, her daughters Shelley Butler and Claudia Brotman, and her sons Robert Freeman and Corey Freeman.

Books

*1996 - ''Music People & Others: 99 Photographs From the Contemporary Music World''. Issued in conjunction with the exhibition "Betty Freeman: Music People & Others," held at the Royal Festival Hall in London from April 12 to June 16, 1996.

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

ermany New York: Festival Press. (Originally published as an exhibition catalog in 1987 by Gabriele Mazzotta (Milan); text by Daniela Palazzoli; text in English and Italian.)

Films

*1995 - ''Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley''. Directed by Michael Blackwood. *2005 - ''Betty Freeman: A Life for the Unknown''. Directed by Paul Fenkart. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459079/

References

External links

Betty Freeman Papers
MSS 227
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library.
Obituary

Gamelan.org page on Si Betty Gamelan

Interviews

Betty Freeman interviewBetty Freeman interview
from New Music Box {{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Betty Philanthropists from New York (state) American patrons of music Philanthropists from California People from Beverly Hills, California Artists from Chicago Artists from New Rochelle, New York People from Brooklyn 1921 births 2009 deaths 20th-century classical music Wellesley College alumni Philanthropists from Illinois 20th-century American philanthropists New Rochelle High School alumni