Taylor Swift has continued her campaign to be named pop’s most generous person with a donation of $50,000 (£33,000) to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Swift wrote to Ludovic Morlot, the orchestra’s conductor and music director, explaning that she had been inspired by a recording of John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean, which was commissioned by the Symphony.
The Seattle Times reports that Swift’s donation is to be used to help fund two of the orchestra’s programmes: Link Up, which sends artists into primary schools for a week at a time to teach music, and its musicians’ pension fund.
Morlot said in a statement: “I was thrilled to hear that Taylor was moved by Become Ocean. This is a powerful piece with a unique soundscape.”
He added: “We’re especially thankful that she wishes to support our musicians and that she shares our belief that all people should be able to experience symphonic music.”
Swift has been generous with her money before, earning a reputation as pop’s most high profile philanthropist. In 2014 she donated all the proceeds from her single Welcome to New York to the city’s public education system. She has donated generously to disaster relief, giving $100,000 to the Red Cross to help victims of the Iowa flood in 2008, and $500,000 to an appeal to help flood victims in Tennessee in May 2010. That was followed by $250,000 to a tornado relief charity in Alabama in 2011.
She has a history of donating to orchestras, too. In December 2013 she donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony to mark her 24th brthday.
