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

Biography

Freeman was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, later moving to

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle ( ; in ) is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately from Midtow ...

and attending

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS), a public secondary school in New Rochelle, New York, is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its buildings were designed by the noted architectural firm ...

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

Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...

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

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. Freeman was a graduate of

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

(1942), where she majored in English literature with a minor in music. She had originally trained to be a

concert pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz, blues, and popular music, including rock and roll. Most pianists can, to ...

, 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, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

and the remaining half in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 city is main ...

. 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 John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...

, Christopher Rouse,

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

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 t ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

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 neoclassic ...

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...

, and

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; 14 October 1952 – 2 June 2023) was a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the En ...

. 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 impos ...

'' 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 scholar, ...

, it has been housed at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 Painting, 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 immediat ...

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 Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

'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 is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

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 Artists 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