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Billings Symphony and Chorale receives largest gift ever – Daily Montanan

['Daily Montanan Staff', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2022-02-08 00:00:00

The Billings Symphony & Chorale organization has received nearly $1.5 million in two major gifts.

Billings-based philanthropists and longtime symphony patrons John W. and Carol L.H. Green will gift $1 million to the Billings Symphony to sustain the executive director’s position — the largest individual gift in the organization’s history.

This gift is in addition to an endowment of $443,833 from the estate of Vincent Carpenter, which began in 2018 to sustain the music director position.

To memorialize these gifts, the position held by Maestra and Music Director Anne Harrigan will be named the Vincent W. & Janet M. Carpenter Music Director, and the position held by Executive Director Ignacio Barrón Viela will be named the John W. & Carol L. H. Green Executive Director.

“These major gifts are a continuation of growth of the Billings Symphony and will help the organization continue to thrive throughout these challenging times,” said Barrón Viela, who moved to Montana in 2018 to fill the role of executive director for the Billings Symphony after obtaining his master’s in business administration in orchestra management at the University of Southern California. He is originally from Zaragoza, Spain.

Viela describes the organization in a state of transition and growth that includes relocating Symphony offices to a downtown storefront at 2820 Second Ave. N. The offices are in a building on the corner of Second Avenue North and North 29th, which was donated to the Symphony in December 2019 by the Sukin family and renovated to include a community performance space and BSOC offices, as well as several small business tenants.

“We are growing and increasing our presence and partnerships in the community. Major gifts like this help us continue to inspire, heal, and support our community through the arts,” Viela said. “This is a call to action for us to keep that trajectory and focus on our mission to enrich lives through music.”

In endowing this gift, the Greens hope to support the growth of the organization and its vision to become the premier symphony for a community of its size.

“Billings enjoys the presence of a professional orchestra and chorale with programs for all ages that are widely respected,” said Carol Green. “We wanted to help support leadership in the office and on the musical stage, which has been visionary and looking to the future.”

“We feel it is important to show that ordinary people take responsibility for philanthropy at every level,” added John Green. “We hope to inspire others to do the same.”

Maestra Anne Harrigan, who has been with BSOC since 2005, was the organization’s first female music director and has invigorated the Symphony by blending popular music with the more traditional classical repertoire. Harrigan has helped push the organization’s programming into new realms, including partnerships with artists and musicians from Indigenous nations including the Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes and has expanded musical outreach into underserved and rural communities, senior living facilities, and the Montana Women’s Prison.

“The Greens and the Carpenters chose to invest in The Billings Symphony and support us as we pursue our vision to be the premier orchestra for a community of our size,” said Harrigan. “These generous families understand the importance of elevating the level of the Symphony.”

John and Carol Green have long been active in the arts community and have given hundreds of volunteer hours and financial resources to many cultural and educational entities, including the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Billings Symphony Orchestra & Chorale, Montana State University Billings, and the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena.

Vincent Carpenter was born in Minneapolis on July 3, 1920. He died in 2018, leaving behind a musical legacy that stretches back to his grandfather, Elbert L. Carpenter, co-founder and first president of the board of the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra). Elbert played a huge role in Vincent’s life and in his appreciation of symphonic music. Vincent and his wife Janet would attend post-concert dinners at his grandparents’ house with some of the finest artists alive at that time, including Anton Rubenstein and Dimitri Mitropoulos.

Vincent was attending Yale University when World War II broke out and joined the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot. After the war, Vincent graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in music from Hamline University in St. Paul, where he joined the faculty of Macalester College and taught music for two decades.

In the 1960s, Vincent and his longtime friend Jack Dietrich bought the Bar Diamond Ranch north of Billings, where he partnered with his son, Larry, to run cattle. Vincent retired in 2008 and he turned his attention back to music. He was involved in many musical organizations including the Red Lodge Music Festival and was also on the board of directors for the Billings Symphony.

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