Freeman, Betty

Biography

Betty Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1921 and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. She was graduated from Wellesley in 1942, where she had studied music. She later took classes at the Juilliard Institute.

Freeman began her activities as a philanthropist and supporter of musicians in 1961 by contributing to a young musician's legal defense. Since then, she has assisted more than 30 contemporary composers. Beginning in 1964, Freeman served on the board of "Encounters," the Pasadena Art Museum's concert program, and beginning in 1981, she hosted her Monday Evening Musicales, a venue for the new works of composers, in her Beverly Hills home. She served on the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, having supported for over a decade the orchestra's New Music Group until its close in 1991.

Betty Freeman was an accomplished photographer. Her exhibit "Music People," a collection of photographs of leading figures in the world of contemporary music, toured internationally and was published as a book entitled Music People and Others (1987). She also produced a documentary film about Harry Partch entitled The Dreamer That Remains: A Portrait of Harry Partch (1972).

Freeman died in January 2009, at the age of 87.

From the guide to the Betty Freeman Papers, 1965 - 2008, (Mandeville Special Collections Library)

Biographies

Otto Rothschild was a Los Angeles commercial photographer and the official performing arts photographer for the Los Angeles Music Center, Hollywood Bowl, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Otto Rothschild Collection is housed in the Los Angeles Music Center Archives.

Betty Freeman, 1921-2009. Betty Freeman was an American philanthropist, arts patron, photographer, film/record producer, and impresario. As an individual patron of contemporary composers she was perhaps the most generous and influential force during the second half of the twentieth century.

From the guide to the Records of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives, 1919-2001, (Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives)