CCM Named Among Recipients of Final Corbett Gifts

Several Greater Cincinnati arts organizations have been notified of substantial gifts from a trust established by the late Patricia A. Corbett.

These organizations include the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati; Society for the Preservation of Music Hall; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Cincinnati Opera; Northern Kentucky University; Cincinnati Musical Festival Association (May Festival); and Cincinnati Children's Theatre.

A major portion of Mrs. Corbett's estate will go to several programs within the College-Conservatory of Music. These include the creation of the Corbett Endowment at CCM for the improvement of facilities, faculty, dance department programming and community educational programming.

Other CCM gifts include the augmentation of the Jean S. Reis Endowment for Theater Design and Production, an endowment created by The Corbett Foundation in 1995; the J. Ralph Corbett Audio Production Center at CCM's Electronic Media Division; and the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

Mrs. Corbett continued to look forward, specifying that most of these gifts are to be used for the future, to create new programs and generate new ideas, and not to pay off past obligations of the recipient organizations. CCM Dean-designate Douglas Knehans, after being informed of the Corbett gift, reflected, "... Mrs. Corbett's generosity and vision for this major gift will be respected and honored. I am … certain this will have a transformative effect on CCM."

The exact value of some of the gifts will not be known until taxes and administration expenses are calculated, and some of the gifts will always be subject to market influences. However, the trustee of the trust, Fifth Third Bank, and Mrs. Corbett's financial advisors estimate the total value of these final gifts will be in excess of $30,000,000, after expenses and taxes are resolved.

Mrs. Corbett died in January after a lifetime of active philanthropy in the arts and arts education in Greater Cincinnati. She and her husband, the late J. Ralph Corbett, began their philanthropic efforts in the 1950s.