Journal Saturday, July 04, 2009

Betty Freeman, Staunch Supporter of New Music, Dies at 87

Betty Freeman, an ardent supporter of and friend to contemporary composers like John Adams, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, died at her home in Los Angeles this past Sunday, January 4, succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age of 87. She will be remembered by Nonesuch Records and the music community at large for her staunch commitment to new music, commissioning such seminal works as Reich's Different Trains for Kronos Quartet. Adams dedicated his first opera, Nixon in China, to her.

Freeman was also an avid and accomplished photographer, deftly capturing the composers whose work she supported, as can be seen in the cover photo of the Steve Reich retrospective Works: 1965-1995, pictured here, taken by Freeman during a rehearsal of Reich's Music for 18 Musicians in New York, March 1976.

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