Foundation Gives $525,000 To Symphony Record-Setting Jewett Gift Designed To Bring In World-Class Performers

The Spokane Symphony announced its largest single donation ever on Tuesday, a $525,000 gift from the Jewett Foundation that will fund the performance of a world-class guest artist annually in Spokane.

The donation honors the memory of Mary Jewett Gaiser, a longtime trustee and symphony donor.

It will establish an endowment fund, with income paying for a yearly concert in memory of Gaiser. The first concert will be scheduled during the 1998-99 season.

“This is so core to what Mary was all about … quality and excellence,” said Jonathan Martin, the symphony’s executive director.

The endowment will allow the symphony to bring high-profile, world-class musicians to perform with the orchestra.

Martin named artists such as opera singer Marilyn Horne, pianist Andre Watts and Japanese violinist Midori as possibilities.

Musicians of that caliber have appeared with the symphony rarely in the past. Watts played a benefit concert for the symphony earlier this year, reducing his fee to help the organization recoup financially after the November 1996 ice storm. Another high-profile musician, baritone Thomas Hampson, has appeared with the symphony largely because of his Spokane background.

“When you’ve got an artist of that stature on stage with the musicians, it pulls them to another level,” Martin said. “It’s an inspiration in a lot of ways.”

Gaiser’s son and daughter and their spouses planned this gift. “The Spokane Symphony was one of my mother’s principal interests in life,” said her son, George “Fritz” Jewett Jr., vice chairman of the board of Potlatch Corp. in San Francisco.

The donation comes during the orchestra’s major gifts campaign. The campaign’s goal is to raise $3.5 million to $4.5 million. The total stands at $2.3 million.

While Gaiser gave generously to a number of Spokane organizations, the symphony seemed to be the most fitting recipient for a major memorial donation, Jewett said.

“More people made voluntary memorial contributions to the Spokane Symphony in my mother’s name than any other philanthropy,” Jewett said.

“She loved classical music, and she firmly believed that Spokane should have a first-class symphony orchestra,” he said.

Perhaps over time, he added, the Jewett Foundation may be able to help other groups his mother supported during her lifetime.

Jewett said he wished his family could tell his mother about this gift.

“She would be delighted,” he said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FUND-RAISING GOAL IN SIGHT The $525,000 donation raises the Spokane Symphony’s major gifts campaign total to $2.3 million. The symphony’s goal is $3.5 million to $4.5 million.