Betty Freeman, an ardent supporter of contemporary composers like John Adams, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, died at her home in Los Angeles this past Sunday, January 4, at the age of 87. Freeman will be remembered for her commitment to new music, commissioning such seminal works as Reich's Different Trains. She was also an accomplished photographer, deftly capturing the composers she supported, as in the cover photo of the Steve Reich's Works: 1965-1995, pictured here, taken during a 1976 rehearsal of Music for 18 Musicians.
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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