ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the privileged white culture of a philanthropic patronage system in the United States that afforded composer Luciano Berio a successful career in the 1960s. By exposing the persistence and dominance of an elite practice, new music is understood as both reliant on and integral to a patronage model rooted in capital accumulation. Connections are made between Berio’s opportunities, upward economic cycles, the absence of accountability and transparency in the behaviors of philanthropic giving, and the unequal access to an exclusive musical culture. This chapter advocates for the incorporation of economic research in musicological studies to broaden an understanding of racial inequities in the patronage system of postwar America.
