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SHOOTING STARS

Photographic portraits of "Music People and Others" by noted new music patron Betty Freeman are on display in the foyer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music through December 18. The exhibit includes more than 100 photographs of leading figures in the worlds of contemporary music, art, and theater. Already seen in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and in Milan at the Decalage Gallery, the photos will go to the University of California at Irvine in the beginning of 1989. Freeman's photographs have been published in a book, also entitled Music People and Others.

For over 25 years, Betty Freeman has been one of the nation's most important supporters of new music. She has been instrumental in building of new music. She has been instrumental in building the careers of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Daniel Lentz, Ingram Marshall, Paul Dresher, and many other composers. She has held close friendships with John Cage, Virgil Thompson, and the late Harry Partch. Her support has made possible the production of numerous important recordings including Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts on Nonesuch records, Lentz's The Crack in the Bell on Angel records, and the recently released recording of Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto performed by Keith Jarrett on New World records, the first in a series with that label. In their Los Angeles home, Freeman and her husband, the Italian artist Franco Assetto, host monthly musicales, where composers perform and discuss their music before a select audience of personages from the art world.

Freeman has served on the Inter-Arts Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts and in 1986 was honored with the American Music Center's letter of distinction "for her personal commitment and visionary support of American composers." -- Jody Dalton

Typed by C. Vega 5-18-96