When longtime Symphony San Jose patron Ann Brown died last year, she left the company a $1 million bequest — the symphony’s largest donation in its 23-year history.
“Ann’s extraordinary generosity will have a profound and lasting impact on Symphony San Jose,” Executive Artistic Director Robert Massey said. He said the majority of the funds will go into the symphony’s endowment, which provides a steady income to support concerts, education programs and community initiatives.
Ann Brown, who died in late 2024, left a $1 million bequest to Symphony San Jose that will become part of the arts organization’s endowment. (Photo courtesy Symphony San Jose)
Brown grew up in San Mateo and worked for Four-Phase Systems, a Cupertino computer company acquired by Motorola in the early ’80s, and later for Apple. She attended symphony concerts at the California Theatre with a group of her friends, Massey said, and would sit with them in the balcony. She especially enjoyed seeing the younger, diverse crowds brought in by the concerts that featured movies with the orchestra performing the score live.
Her friends, Massey added, plan to continue to attend concerts as a tribute to her — and no doubt they’ll be there for this weekend’s program highlighted by Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.”
This kind of bequest is a huge deal for Symphony San Jose, which in 2022 had an operating budget of about $4 million. The total reported for its endowment that year was about $3 million, so this gift has the potential to be transformative for the company.
YAN CAN TRAVEL: Celebrity chef Martin Yan was cracking people up — as he is known to do — with his stories and antics Wednesday afternoon. But this wasn’t on TV or at a stage show. Nope, the “Yan Can Cook” host was helping to cut the ribbon on CEO Noodles, a colorful new eatery on East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose opened by entrepreneur Wen Chen.
Chef Martin Yan talks to the crowd that gathered for the ribbon cutting of CEO Noodles, a new restaurant on East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. Yan was a consultant on the restaurant. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
Yan — who joked that he should have brought his knife to cut the ribbon — was a consultant on the restaurant. CEO Noodles (the CEO stands for Chief Eating Officer) will serve up a diverse menu of noodle dishes from around the world, starting right now with Chinese and Malaysian noodles and eventually branching out to pho, ramen and even Italian pasta.
“Noodles are very popular right now,” Yan said, before listing off every noodle under the sun and the various ways to prepare them (His favorite way is stir fry). “You can put whatever toppings you want on noodles. Noodles are in many ways more versatile than rice.”
Yan says he’s spending a lot of time in South Bay libraries lately and not just to catch up on his reading. He’s been making appearances at Santa Clara County libraries demonstrating dishes from his cookbooks, “The Best of Yan Can Cook” and “My Asian Kitchen,” just in time for Lunar New Year. He’ll be at the Gilroy Library on Jan. 25 at 11 a.m., the Cupertino library Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. and the Morgan Hill library Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.
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DANCING TO THE FUTURE: Last month, we went to see New Ballet’s production of “The San Jose Nutcracker” at the California Theatre, and New Ballet founder Dalia Rawson introduced me to Gabriela Rodriguez, one of the company’s talented dancers. What I didn’t know at the time was that Rodriguez got her start with New Ballet’s First Step program, which helps young students from low-income areas get ballet instruction they might not otherwise afford.
The program is open to students in first through third grades at San Jose Unified or Alum Rock school district campuses. In addition to tuition, the students get a pair of ballet shoes and a uniform.
So what’s the point of mentioning this? There is still room in this year’s program for qualified students, and they can enroll through Feb. 10. Get more information at newballet.com/first-step.
