PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Four months after a $50 million gift to the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Annenberg Foundation is giving $15 million to the endowment of the Academy of Music, the Broad Street landmark the orchestra owns.
Leonore Annenberg, president of the foundation, is the widow of the late billionaire publisher and diplomat Walter H. Annenberg, and has had a long association with the orchestra. The $15 million, in payments of $5 million a year over three years, will be placed in the Academy’s endowment to generate income for improvements to the 147-year-old landmark.
”What this really does is to make sure that the building is preserved,” said Harold A. Sorgenti, the Academy’s outgoing president.
”I think she is picking up the lead from Walter, who had a very strong interest in everything that happens at the Academy of Music,” said Luther W. Brady, the incoming president, who said he was already planning for the 150th anniversary celebration of the building in three years.
The Annenberg gift will quadruple the size of the Academy’s endowment to $20 million, which will generate about $1 million a year in interest and other income.