Meet the Composer

“I am mindful of the effort it takes to create a new piece of orchestral music—for the composer of course, but also the performers and conductors. Bringing the new notes on the page to vibrant life takes a lot of extra effort and imagination, much more than playing the familiar. I am so honored to be working with people that make that commitment in service of this magnificent art form.”

—Kathryn Gould

I woke up to the idea of commissioning music when I turned 50, saying okay, I've been hugely successful in business, I've made all this money and now what can I do? One of my biggest disappointments in life has been new music. I do believe there are a lot of composers out there writing wonderful music but their music isn't being heard.

I love music. It's always in my head. I worry that the orchestras are suffering and the audience all has gray hair. Art music is going to die if it doesn't reconnect with the audience. So I started trying to discover why music was in this state. After having a bunch of conversations with other music lovers and realizing I wasn't alone in this, I decided I had to do something.

My violin teacher, Karen Dentley, pointed me to some professional music people. Through conversations and email exchanges, I came away thinking that with enough money, forcefulness and determination, we can reinvigorate art and orchestras.

It's a big goal but what the hell? I've done the impossible before. I'm one of the only women in venture capital, so challenges don't bother me.

To one composer I asked, what would inspire you to write your best work? He suggested the plan of writing a piece several orchestras would play. Apparently everyone wants to give money for a premiere, but it's hard for new music to find a second, third, and fourth performance. So that became the idea for Magnum Opus. It's designed from the composer's point of view to meet that need.

So, I had the idea. But I didn't have the contacts. Then I found Meet The Composer, which provided the way in and helped me develop the project every step of the way. As a venture capitalist, I consider myself a pretty good picker of people-it's my skill and it's important to me to get the right people involved. The composers for the first round are Kenji Bunch, Ingram Marshall and Kevin Puts.

I've got enough money for the pilot program to last two to five years. Then, if we get good results- and it may happen faster than that-I know a lot of people who have said they'd be interested in helping. But first we have to create a track record.

My hope is that people will take pride in creating a new sound that reflects the culture we have here in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. It's a unique and pretty interesting area. Maybe we'd end up creating a new school of new music here. That would be fabulous and I'd love to be part of it.

I play quartets with Walter Hewlett and Paul Brest, president of the Hewlett Foundation and every time we play together they ask how the project is going. There's obviously tremendous interest in this.

My second musical project is a collaboration with Villa Montalvo, which has a 300-seat auditorium where world-class performers—like Midori and Joshua Bell and the Eroica Trio—perform. There we are developing a commissioning project for performers.

What is amazing is that commissioning does not cost very much money. And you can really make something happen.

I'm not in this for fame. The Magnum Opus project doesn't even have my name on it. I just want to go to a concert of new music and go wow, that was incredible, I want to hear that again right now! That's why I'm doing this.