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Alice M. Ditson Fund

The Alice M. Ditson Fund, founded in 1940,[1] supports contemporary American music.[2] Significant ongoing awards include the Ditson Conductor's Award.

In its early years, the fund supported notable 20th-century musicians such as Bela Bartok,[3] Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, Gian Carlo Menotti, Virgil Thomson,[4] and Walter Piston.[5] From 1945 to 1952, the Fund sponsored the week-long Columbia Festival of Contemporary American Music.[6] The Ditson Fund was also active in supporting the Composers' Forum concerts in New York.[7]

The fund's namesake, Alice Ditson, was the wife of music publisher Charles Healy Ditson and daughter-in-law of Oliver Ditson, founder of the publishing house that bore his name.[8] She was a supporter of American classical music during her lifetime, and her will bequested $400,000 (equivalent to $8.7 million in 2023) to Columbia University[9][10] for "the encouragement and aide of musicians."[11]

  1. ^ Wiprudon, Theodore (2000-08-01). "On the Money: New Music Funding in the United States". NewMusicBox. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  2. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (2010-06-09). "Jack Beeson, Composer and Teacher, Dies at 88". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  3. ^ Peyser, Joan (1995). The Music of My Time. Pro/AM Music Resources Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-912483-99-3.
  4. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (1997). Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-393-04006-7.
  5. ^ Steinberg, Michael (1995). The Symphony: A Listener's Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 420. ISBN 978-0-19-512665-5.
  6. ^ "About the Ditson Fund Recordings Archive".
  7. ^ Patterson, Nick (2011). "The Archives of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center". Notes. 67 (3): 483–502. doi:10.1353/not.2011.0008. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 23012776. S2CID 191585272.
  8. ^ Ardizzone, Heidi (2007). An Illuminated Life: Belle Da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-05104-9.
  9. ^ "About the Fund". The Alice M. Ditson Fund. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  10. ^ Beardslee, Bethany; Proctor, Minna (2017). I Sang the Unsingable: My Life in Twentieth-Century Music. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-58046-900-5.
  11. ^ "Columbia Receives Trust to Aid Music". The New York Times. 1940-05-16. p. 31. Retrieved 2021-02-20.

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