The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra is looking to the future after the organization received the largest donation in its history.
SDSO executive director Jennifer Teisinger said the $2 million donation was made by Rosemarie and Dean Buntrock after they read an article featuring the orchestra published in the New Yorker magazine.
Dean Buntrock is originally from Columbia, South Dakota and is among the leadership at Waste Management, Inc, the largest waste management company in America.
“He raised the question ‘what could you do with more?’ And that precipitated a series of conversations about how to help the South Dakota Symphony increase its funding," Teisinger said. "He’s very interested in investing in marketing and fundraising at the South Dakota Symphony so we can increase our own revenue, so we can do more good work in our community and throughout our state.”
Among those projects is an effort to revive an opera set in South Dakota – Giants in the Earth.
The winner of the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for music, the opera has scarcely been performed live, and never been recorded for public consumption previously.
“Giants in the Earth is an opera written by the American author Douglas Moore," Teisinger said. "It’s based on the novel Giants in the Earth written by Ole Rolvaag, who was a Norwegian immigrant who moved to South Dakota and went to school at what was then the Augustana Academy in Canton. Not many people have heard it.”
The other effort to be funded – the longstanding Lakota Music Project.
“This new Lakota Music Project will include the development of new music for Native American musicians and South Dakota symphony musicians to play together," Teisinger said. "Which will form the foundation of a concert which will then be toured to several reservations in our state.”
Teisinger said the orchestra is grateful to the Buntrock family for their contribution.