Ruth Bader Ginsburg tribute required innovative donations

The upcoming world premiere at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra of a classical music piece inspired by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would probably have been impossible if not for a bunch of lawyers in the Chicago area, a Long Island fine arts foundation and an award-winning pianist and composer who put the deal together.

Such is the art of financing new musical works in the midst of a pandemic.

Even in the best of economic times, finding funders for new orchestral works is typically difficult.

"You’re looking for support for something that doesn’t exist,” said Jeffrey Biegel, a pianist and composer on the faculty of Brooklyn College who has managed to bring together donors and composers to create more than a dozen musical works since 1999. “We have no idea what the first notes will sound like until we have enough money to pay for it.”

In the course of commissioning previous music projects, Biegel estimates he has raised a total of $600,000. But with many arts and entertainment nonprofits now debilitated by COVID-19 and donations declining along with event revenue, raising the $25,000 to $100,000 to commission a new work has become harder. The sector is still recovering from a loss of about 35% of its jobs as of last September, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies.

Biegel, 60, of Lynbrook, New York, recognized that in order for “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg” by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich to reach fruition, he needed to approach it differently.

“This piece marks a moment in time when a very significant historical figure lived and left her legacy in so many ways,” he said. “I thought a piece of music to honor her and commemorate this legacy was in order, and donors came to help for that.”

Kim Noltemy, president and CEO...