Recently, Salt Lake City businessman, investor and golfer Tom C. Mathews died, leaving a $4 million estate.
Because he left no heirs, Mathews “told his friend to see to it that it goes to a good cause,” according to Robert Walzel, the chairman of the music department at the University of Utah.
Before he died, Mathews also expressed the wish to make a gift to music in the name of his mother, Mae deFfee Mathews, who studied and taught music.
For these reasons, Larry Moss, the trustee of Mathews’ estate chose to give the U music department $2 million for scholarships.
The scholarship funds are specifically earmarked for full tuition undergraduate scholarships. The music department anticipates that the fund will produce $100,000 a year, which translates into 30 in-state tuition waivers or 10 out-of-state tuition breaks.
“It was really something that was badly needed,” said Phyllis Haskell, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “We both agreed that helping students was the way we wanted to go.”
The funds will allow the U to be competitive with the other schools in Utah in recruiting talented musicians who play the instruments that the department needs.
“We’re like athletics,” Walzel said. “We look for specific talents [instruments] to recruit. We look for different things that allow us to put together our team.”
Walzel said the deficiencies in his department are in the strings and winds.
“Our numbers of students are below what we need to have,” he said. “The numbers in the orchestra are particularly down.”
Lorrinda Christensen, a student who plays the bass trombone, is on a scholarship from the music department. Her jazz band scholarship gives her $200 per semester, barely enough to pay for her textbooks.
Although she said the bands have enough musicians, she acknowledges there is a deficiency of players in the program.
“They’re not getting as many people here as they need to be,” she said. “The orchestra is really hurting bad. They could definitely use a lot more players.”
In the past, the music department received 43 full tuition scholarships from the U. About four years ago, that funding was cut from 43 scholarships to only five because the U wanted to distribute funding equally across campus.
The music department distributed those funds between the band and the orchestra.
“By us losing those full tuition scholarships, it makes it difficult for us to recruit,” Walzel said.
At about the same time, the Associated Students of the University of Utah decided to stop funding student groups that were also enrolled classes.
“At most other universities, the ensembles receive funding from the student organizations,” Walzel said.
Scholarship funds are particularly important for musicians, because all talented players coming out of high school get offers from competing universities, according to Walzel.
“We’ll make an award to a prospective student and another school will offer more, maybe only $100 or $200 more, and the student will go there,” Walzel said. He said the U does not have as much scholarship money available as the other institutions in the state.
“I think it will be a great help in recruiting talented and needy students,” Haskell said of the money. “It will help us be competitive, not only in the state of Utah, but also give us an opportunity to recruit some students who would like to come to the U.”
The Huntsman Cancer Institute also received $2 million from Mathews.