Houston Symphony hits high note with $5 million gift
The Houston Symphony has launched its 10-year strategic plan on a high note, with a $5 million commitment from Margaret Alkek Williams to support operations, a sustainability fund and an endowed chair for the organization’s executive director and CEO.
It’s the largest single contribution the symphony has received from an individual since 2006. Sharing the news with other major donors gathered on the Jones Hall stage Tuesday, symphony board chair Jesse B. Tutor said Williams’ gift is both a vote of confidence in the organization’s “Vision 2025” strategic plan to deepen the orchestra’s community impact and a “ringing endorsement” for the work of executive director and CEO Mark C. Hanson, who arrived five years ago.
Williams said she and Hanson, along with his wife, Christina Hanson, have become “good and trusted friends. As much as Mark is honored to be the first person to hold the Margaret Alkek Williams Executive Director/CEO Chair, I am equally honored to attach my name to such an important position in the organization’s leadership.”
Williams, a governing director of the symphony’s board, said it is vital Houston’s flagship arts organizations have the operational and endowment support they need to prosper and grow.
“The performing and visual-arts community in Houston is incredibly important to me. Attending the range of performances and exhibitions that our city has to offer gives me great joy and is personally very fulfilling,” she said.
Williams rarely misses performances or exhibitions by any of Houston’s major arts organizations. Several years ago she pledged $5 million for Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance, where a black-box theater bears her name. Hanson said Williams has been an “extraordinary advocate” for the symphony for more than 25 years.
“Through her philanthropy, she has allowed the organization to dream, to pursue new ideas and to retain and recruit the finest musicians and conductors to Houston,” he said.
The gift also helped the symphony meet its sustainability fund goal for the 2015 fiscal year, capping four years of consecutive balanced budgets during a period of transformation.
Her donation will be linked to several artistic projects during the symphony’s 2015-2016 season and beyond, including an opening-night performance Sept. 12 that will honor her 80th birthday.