Los Angeles’ Colburn School announced a $16.6 million gift from Northbrook, Ill.-based Negaunee Foundation. The gift will help support the conservatory’s Negaunee Conducting Program, which is headed by star conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The Negaunee Conducting Program was established in 2018 to support the education of select students known as Salonen Fellows. The program is highly competitive, and fellows have gone on to perform with major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Berlin Philharmonic, among many others.
This is the largest gift from the Negaunee Foundation to a California organization. The philanthropy has donated millions to Chicago-area organizations where it is based, including $21 million given in March to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.
The Negaunee Foundation is headed by investor Richard W. Colburn and is built on wealth derived from an electrical equipment distribution company owned by the Colburn family. Colburn’s father, businessman and amateur violist Richard D. Colburn, was a founding benefactor of the Colburn School in the early 1980s. In addition to arts and cultural institutions, Richard W. Colburn and the Negaunee Foundation are major backers of conservative political organizations such as the Cato Institute and the Republican National Committee.
