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TSO CEO on How $10M Donation Enables Health-Focused Initiatives

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra recently received the largest single private donation in its 97-year history. The estate of H.

TSO CEO on How $10M Donation Enables Health-Focused Initiatives

By Nick Krewen

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra recently received the largest single private donation in its 97-year history. The estate of H. Thomas Beck and his wife Mary bequeathed $10 million to the TSO – and CEO Matthew Loden says the money will be used for a number of purposes, including the financing of some health and wellness concerts.


“It’s fantastic,” Loden tells Samaritanmag. “And the way they’ve given the money is unrestricted.  Mary and Tom Beck wanted to make sure that the TSO could use the money in the best way possible for the organization.

“In large part, what (the gift) helps us to do is become the cornerstone for our artistic and strategic planning going forward. It helps us to plan more for the future, but it also had an immediate impact on retiring some of our accumulated deficit, which is critically important. In 2013, our accumulated deficit was $12 million and now it’s $2.6 million. That’s fantastic compared to where we’ve been. “

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Loden is also enthused about the opportunity this gives the TSO to engage in such health and wellness programs as “relaxed concerts,” designed to appeal to the autistic community.

“It’s a relaxed concert for anyone who may be neuro-atypical,” he explains. “We did a regular performance, but we changed the experience in the hall. We had a safe room and fidget spinners and we trained the orchestra in working with some autism specialists on trying to put on a performance for a very special group of people that never ever come to concerts.

“Doing more of those kinds of programs in the community is really important to us. It’s an important gift because it helps us to have some breathing room in order to pull some of those programs off.”

It’s also not the first time the TSO has encountered the generosity of the Becks; they donated $10 million during the orchestra’s earlier years. — Continue reading at Samaritanmag.com

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Tim Leiweke photographed on April 28, 2023 at Oak View Group in Los Angeles.
Joel Barhamand

Tim Leiweke photographed on April 28, 2023 at Oak View Group in Los Angeles.

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Tim Leiweke to Step Down as OVG’s CEO After Being Criminally Indicted for Bid-Rigging

The government accuses Leiweke of orchestrating a "conspiracy to rig the bidding process" to win a contract to build and operate the Moody Center in Austin.

Tim Leiweke, one of the most accomplished CEOs in the live entertainment and facilities business, announced today that he is stepping down as CEO of Oak View Group (OVG) after being indicted by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division for bid-rigging related to the company’s 2017 contract to build the Moody Center Arena in Austin.

On Wednesday (July 9), a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas returned an indictment against Leiweke, alleging he orchestrated a “conspiracy to rig the bidding process for an arena at a public university in Austin, Texas.” Authorities say Leiweke conspired with the chief executive of Legends Hospitality to rig the bidding for the construction and management of Austin’s $338 million, 19,000-seat Moody Center.

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