Francis Mason 1921 - 2009
The New York Times
September 27, 2009
Francis Mason, Voice for Dance Over 5 Decades, Dies at 88
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Francis Mason, editor, writer, cultural diplomat, radio dance critic and dance devotee, died on Thursday at his home in Rye, N.Y. He was 88.
His daughter, Leslie, announced the death. He emerged as a dance writer in the 1950s; more than 50 years later he was still at work in the dance field, most notably in the last three decades as editor until his death of the New York dance magazine Ballet Review and until a few months ago as dance critic of the radio station WQXR-FM.
His most notable achievement may have come earlier, when as a knowledgeable cultural attaché in American embassies, he furthered the careers of many famous dance figures, notably George Balanchine and Martha Graham, both friends of his.
Performances he arranged helped establish the popularity of American dance troupes both in Europe and the United States. In 1980, when he took over as the third editor of Ballet Review, founded in 1965, he was the first to bring it out on a reliable quarterly basis, a rhythm he and his colleagues maintained from then on.
Born in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 9, 1921, he received his bachelor’s degree from St John’s College in Annapolis and participated in D-Day while serving in the Navy. Music, literature, movies and the visual arts were all earlier loves of his; dance seized him only when friends took him (almost forcibly) in 1948 to the world premiere of “Orpheus,” with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Balanchine.
His work as a dance voice on radio began in 1949 for WNYC, on the program “Today in Ballet.” In 1954 he was the principal editor and author of the highly successful book “Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets,” which has since been reissued in successive editions with various names.
This book catches Balanchine’s voice and spirit in its account of his ballets, and it generously relates the scenarios of a wide range of internationally successful ballet repertory.
Mr. Mason’s attachment to Balanchine, Graham (whose work first impressed him as great in 1952) and their dance companies was a constant thread in his career, continuing after their deaths. He served for decades as a member of the board of the Graham company, twice as chairman, from 1974 to 1976 and from 2000 to 2007. In his second stint, he steered the company through a trying period of lawsuits, fund-raising and advocacy.
In 1991 Mr. Mason published “I Remember Balanchine,” an important and often revelatory anthology of his personally conducted interviews with an extraordinary range of people whose contacts with Balanchine stretched from the 1920s to the 1980s.
His wife, Patricia, whom he married in 1952, was a leading real-estate broker and an ardent horticulturist, but their interests overlapped. In 1996 when she handled the sale of 128 East 19th Street, the property that had belonged to Lincoln Kirstein, the man who brought Balanchine to America and his long-term colleague in running New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet, she donated her commission to the Lincoln Kirstein Fund at the School of American Ballet.
Mrs. Mason died in 1997. Besides his daughter, Leslie, a real estate broker in Manhattan, Mr. Mason is survived by his son, Spencer Mason, an opera singer in Pforzheim, Germany; and two grandchildren.
Mr. Mason was cultural attaché to the United States embassies in Belgrade (1956-60), in what is now Serbia, and, in London (1960-65).
He successfully urged the American government to sponsor appearances by American dance companies in London; this work did much to establish British acceptance of Balanchine, Graham and other American choreographers and, as a result, the predominance of American choreography and dancing as the major new influence on the international dance scene.
The success of New York City Ballet, the Graham company and others (notably Alvin Ailey’s and Merce Cunningham’s) in London in the 1960s made a great impression back in the United States and in other countries; Mr. Mason had worked hard to make it happen.
His many other posts included two years in Washington as chief of East/West Exhibitions (1965-67); a year in New York as president of Experiments in Art and Technology, invited by its founders, Billy Kluver and Robert Rauschenberg; a period as assistant to Arthur A. Houghton Jr. (president of Steuben Glass and chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and, starting in 1975, assistant director of the Morgan Library & Museum.
At the Fall for Dance program on Friday night at City Center, the Martha Graham company dedicated its performance to Mr. Mason.
Personal comment: I only met Francis Mason once. It was in 1989 when I was with the Pennsylvania Ballet and I went back to SAB to see friends and he was there interviewing several long time faculty about their experiences with Balanchine for his book ‘I Remember Balanchine’
The New York Times
September 27, 2009
Francis Mason, Voice for Dance Over 5 Decades, Dies at 88
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Francis Mason, editor, writer, cultural diplomat, radio dance critic and dance devotee, died on Thursday at his home in Rye, N.Y. He was 88.
His daughter, Leslie, announced the death. He emerged as a dance writer in the 1950s; more than 50 years later he was still at work in the dance field, most notably in the last three decades as editor until his death of the New York dance magazine Ballet Review and until a few months ago as dance critic of the radio station WQXR-FM.
His most notable achievement may have come earlier, when as a knowledgeable cultural attaché in American embassies, he furthered the careers of many famous dance figures, notably George Balanchine and Martha Graham, both friends of his.
Performances he arranged helped establish the popularity of American dance troupes both in Europe and the United States. In 1980, when he took over as the third editor of Ballet Review, founded in 1965, he was the first to bring it out on a reliable quarterly basis, a rhythm he and his colleagues maintained from then on.
Born in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 9, 1921, he received his bachelor’s degree from St John’s College in Annapolis and participated in D-Day while serving in the Navy. Music, literature, movies and the visual arts were all earlier loves of his; dance seized him only when friends took him (almost forcibly) in 1948 to the world premiere of “Orpheus,” with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Balanchine.
His work as a dance voice on radio began in 1949 for WNYC, on the program “Today in Ballet.” In 1954 he was the principal editor and author of the highly successful book “Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets,” which has since been reissued in successive editions with various names.
This book catches Balanchine’s voice and spirit in its account of his ballets, and it generously relates the scenarios of a wide range of internationally successful ballet repertory.
Mr. Mason’s attachment to Balanchine, Graham (whose work first impressed him as great in 1952) and their dance companies was a constant thread in his career, continuing after their deaths. He served for decades as a member of the board of the Graham company, twice as chairman, from 1974 to 1976 and from 2000 to 2007. In his second stint, he steered the company through a trying period of lawsuits, fund-raising and advocacy.
In 1991 Mr. Mason published “I Remember Balanchine,” an important and often revelatory anthology of his personally conducted interviews with an extraordinary range of people whose contacts with Balanchine stretched from the 1920s to the 1980s.
His wife, Patricia, whom he married in 1952, was a leading real-estate broker and an ardent horticulturist, but their interests overlapped. In 1996 when she handled the sale of 128 East 19th Street, the property that had belonged to Lincoln Kirstein, the man who brought Balanchine to America and his long-term colleague in running New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet, she donated her commission to the Lincoln Kirstein Fund at the School of American Ballet.
Mrs. Mason died in 1997. Besides his daughter, Leslie, a real estate broker in Manhattan, Mr. Mason is survived by his son, Spencer Mason, an opera singer in Pforzheim, Germany; and two grandchildren.
Mr. Mason was cultural attaché to the United States embassies in Belgrade (1956-60), in what is now Serbia, and, in London (1960-65).
He successfully urged the American government to sponsor appearances by American dance companies in London; this work did much to establish British acceptance of Balanchine, Graham and other American choreographers and, as a result, the predominance of American choreography and dancing as the major new influence on the international dance scene.
The success of New York City Ballet, the Graham company and others (notably Alvin Ailey’s and Merce Cunningham’s) in London in the 1960s made a great impression back in the United States and in other countries; Mr. Mason had worked hard to make it happen.
His many other posts included two years in Washington as chief of East/West Exhibitions (1965-67); a year in New York as president of Experiments in Art and Technology, invited by its founders, Billy Kluver and Robert Rauschenberg; a period as assistant to Arthur A. Houghton Jr. (president of Steuben Glass and chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and, starting in 1975, assistant director of the Morgan Library & Museum.
At the Fall for Dance program on Friday night at City Center, the Martha Graham company dedicated its performance to Mr. Mason.
Personal comment: I only met Francis Mason once. It was in 1989 when I was with the Pennsylvania Ballet and I went back to SAB to see friends and he was there interviewing several long time faculty about their experiences with Balanchine for his book ‘I Remember Balanchine’
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