HSBC'S Studzinski plans fundraising for arts programs in U.K. - Bloomberg News

By Linda Sandler
from Bloomberg News

John Studzinski, an HSBC Holdings Plc banker in London who said he spends a quarter of his salary on programs for young artists, plans to take outside contributions from individuals and foundations to support the arts in the U.K. and abroad.

U.S.-born Studzinski, 48, is co-head of corporate and investment banking at Europe's biggest bank.  His Genesis Foundation has spent as much as 1.5 million pounds a year ($2.7 million) since he started it in 2001 to help create operas at London's Almeida theater and plays at the Young Vic and Royal Court  theaters. While investors such as U.S. fund manager Alberto Vilar and U.K. real estate investor Donald Gordon write checks for established opera houses, Studzinski set out to train a new generation of opera librettists and theater directors. Now, he has set up the legal structure to take outside donations for similar programs to be run by Genesis.

"Foundations and companies and individuals have approached us saying,'Can't we give a donation?' Studzinski said last night at a party for the Genesis Foundation and its beneficiaries at the Conservatory Venue on southwest London's Ransome's Dock.  "We put in place a structure for them to do so." After his speech, Studzinski said in an interview that he had no idea how much money would come in to Genesis, though the foundation would continue to focus on young artists.  "The rich should give away more of their money, not only to established organizations such as the U.K.'s Royal Opera House or the annual festival of the Glyndebourne Opera," he said.

Corporate Finance

HSBC last year hired Studzinski, a former Morgan Stanley banker who moved to London in 1984, and he has been building a team to boost HSBC's corporate-finance business. The division brought in 30.9 percent of the lender's pretax profit of $14.4 billion in 2003. Studzinski, a Massachusetts-born Catholic, was made a knight of the Order of St. Gregory by Pope John Paul II in 2001 for his work for the homeless. He is vice chairman of the Washington-based Human Rights Watch, whose concerns range from torture of prisoners to treatment of young offenders, and is a trustee of London's Tate Gallery.

Studzinski's speech was preceded by a performance of a quintet for strings and clarinet written by Serbian Isidora Zebeljan, in her 30s. Funded by Genesis, she has won a commission to compose an orchestral work for the Venice Biennale. Roxanna Panufnik, who was asked by Studzinski to write a mass for Cardinal Hume's 75th birthday a year before he died in 1999, said she has been busy composing other works since then. Matthew Billington, a sculptor in his late 20s who uses Celtic patterns on his works including gravestones, sold three sculptures and won three commissions after Genesis gave him a Web site. In February, the Young Vic won the Laurence Olivier Award for its season under artistic director David Lan, who schooled young directors through a Genesis project.

Banking on People

"Part of what I'm doing is banking on people," Studzinski said. "I would never have gone into that project without David." Genesis-backed operas have had mixed reviews. London's Financial Times last July panned Sirius on Earth, a science-fiction operetta by a Canadian composer and librettist, and Thwaite by an Irish team, about survivors of a catastrophe. "Neither of these pieces should have been allowed past the workshop phase," wrote reviewer Andrew  Clark. Dublin's Sunday Business Post said "Thwaite was riveting."

In March, Genesis chose three opera projects, including Push! about women in labor by U.K. composer David Bruce and The Umbrella by Russian composer Elena Langer, that it will fund over the next 18 months as the works are completed. Genesis will concentrate on making good operas, Studzinski said in his speech. "I've learned a lot. The last project focused too much on production, and not enough on the creative process," he said. Studzinski made a foray into the visual arts in October when Genesis gave money to the National Gallery in London to help fund a show of video installations by U.S. artist Bill Viola. "That didn't mean Genesis was giving up on emerging artists", said Mel Cooper, a trustee of the foundation. "The Viola show aimed to bring younger people into the National Gallery who wouldn't otherwise go there," he said.

Copyright Bloomberg News July 2004. All rights reserved.