USC Music Professor Increases Campaign Gift to $10 Million

Los Angeles, California - Longtime violin professor Alice Schoenfeld of the USC Thornton School of Music has increased her campaign gift to the school by $7 million to establish the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Scholarship Fund for Strings Students. The new campaign commitment follows a $3 million commitment Schoenfeld made in October 2012 to renovate the school’s main symphonic rehearsal space for student-musicians. Her total campaign gift is the largest ever made to the University of Southern California by a longtime faculty member.

Schoenfeld, who is holder of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair in String Instruction, has directed that the new gift be used for scholarships in her name and that of her sister, Eleonore, a longtime professor of cello at USC Thornton who died in 2007. As the Schoenfeld Duo, the sisters were internationally renowned classical performers and toured the world’s great music halls for decades. Between them, they taught for more than a century at USC Thornton, and Alice Schoenfeld continues to instruct violin students.

Alice Schoenfeld’s $10 million donation is second in size only to the school’s naming gift in 1999 from philanthropist Flora Thornton. Schoenfeld’s contribution serves as the lead gift in USC Thornton’s $75 million fundraising initiative that kicked off last night. The initiative is part of The Campaign for the University of Southern California, a multiyear effort to secure $6 billion or more in private philanthropy to advance USC’s academic priorities and expand the university’s positive impact on the community and world.

“Alice Schoenfeld’s new commitment to establish a scholarship fund for string musicians at USC Thornton reflects her profound dedication to her students,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “Her students have