Alumnus’ trust fund donates $11.7M to Herb Alpert School of Music

A UCLA alumnus’ trust fund contributed $11.7 million to the Herb Alpert School of Music, officials announced Monday.

David Dobrow, a UCLA pre-medicine alumnus who died in 2013, established a fund that aims to ensure the music school’s long-term financial security, according to a UCLA press release. The David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund, created under the David Dobrow Trust, will donate almost $500,000 to the school every year, said Judith Smith, the interim dean of the School of Music, in the release.

Dobrow stated in his will he wanted the funds to be used to support classical music performances. Smith said the donation will allow the school to continue performing classical music while freeing up resources to be invested in other music genres.

Dobrow, who attended UCLA from 1946 to 1949 and played on the football team, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after earning a medical degree from UC San Francisco. Later, he began to appreciate classical music and play the trumpet.

The University of California Board of Regents formally established the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as an independent entity on Jan. 20. The school was founded in 2007 with a $30 million gift from the Herb Alpert Foundation and was previously a part of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

“(This donation) will enable so many opportunities for our students,” said Neal Stulberg, co-director of the School of Music. “(It) will allow us all to dream big dreams about the next phase of performance life at the Herb Alpert school.”