Ian Stoutzker

Sir Ian Isaac Stoutzker CBE (21 January 1929 – 6 April 2024) was a British banker, musician and philanthropist. He was involved in Royal College of Music, where he studied violin and was a member of the council. Throughout his life, Stoutzker engaged in endeavours related to arts and music, including with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Live Music Now, the London Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Biography Ian Isaac Stoutzker was born in London, England, on 21 January 1929. His father was the cantor at the Central Synagogue in London. His mother, Dora Cohen, was a piano teacher in Tredegar, Wales. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and at the London School of Economics.

Stouzker studied the violin with the English violinist Albert Sammons at the Royal College of Music. In 1968, he became a member of the council of the Royal College and served for 31 years. On retirement in 1999, he was made a vice president of the college.

Stoutzker held the appointment as chairman of the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1973 to 1976, and was president of the orchestra from 1976 to 1979. Following the death of its principal conductor, Otto Klemperer, in 1973, the New Philharmonia Orchestra needed financial support and new musical leadership. The financial support was provided when for the first time a non-playing member of a London orchestra was appointed chairman. In 1997, he proposed and oversaw the change of its name from the "New Philharmonia Orchestra" to its original name of the "Philharmonia Orchestra".

In 1977, Yehudi Menuhin and Stoutzker founded Live Music Now. Stoutzker was appointed chairman in 1978. In 2018, Stoutzker passed the role of chairman to Vernon Ellis while remaining as president.

In 1992, Stoutzker was invited to chair the Advisory Council of the London Symphony Orchestra. He retired in 2007 and was awarded honorary membership of the London Symphony Orchestra.

From 2008, Stoutzker and his wife lived in Salzburg, Austria.

Philanthropy Stoutzker and his wife Mercedes gifted nine works to the Tate Gallery including works by Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Peter Doig and Hurvin Anderson. In 2011, Stoutzker gifted £500,000 for the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in memory of his mother who was a music teacher in Tredegar, South Wales. He contributed to acquiring the 'Viotti Stradivari' violin for the Royal Academy of Music's instrument collection.

Other activities 1980–2004 — Member – Finance Committee of the Musicians Benevolent Fund 1992–2003 — Co-chairman – Voices Foundation

Awards 1969 – Fellow of the Royal College of Music 1993 – Order of the British Empire 2006 – Honorary Member of the London Symphony Orchestra 2008 – Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music — "With the possible exception of George Frideric Handel, no individual has done more to bring music to children and the disadvantaged in the history of this country than Ian Stoutzker." 2011 – Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama 2012 – Commander of the British Empire for services to Music 2013 – Prince of Wales Medal for Arts Philanthropy – a joint award with Lady Stoutzker 2017 – Robert Maskrey Award for Arts Philanthropy 2019 – Knighthood "For services to Music and to Philanthropy" — Queen's Birthday Honours 2020 – Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain