Gordon Getty

{{Infobox person

| name = Gordon Getty

| image = Gordon Getty at service for J. Paul Getty.jpg

| caption = Getty in 1976

| imagesize =

| birth_name = Gordon Peter Getty

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1933|12|20}}

| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| resting_place =

| alma_mater = University of San Francisco
San Francisco Conservatory of Music

| occupation = Businessman, composer

| years_active =

| spouse = {{marriage|Ann Gilbert|1964|2020||reason=her death}}

| partner =

| children = 7, including Andrew and Kendalle

| parents = J. Paul Getty
Ann Rork Light

| family = Getty

}}

Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife.{{cite news | first=Peter | last=Byrne | title=Bringing Up Baby Gavin | date=April 2, 2003 | url=http://www.sfweekly.com/2003-04-02/news/bringing-up-baby-gavin | work=SF Weekly | access-date=April 21, 2009 | archive-date=July 22, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722023716/http://www.sfweekly.com/2003-04-02/news/bringing-up-baby-gavin/ | url-status=dead }} When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed control of Getty's US$ 2 billion trust. His net worth was $2.1 billion in September 2020, making him number 391 on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/gordon-getty/ |title=Gordon Getty|access-date=May 10, 2019| magazine=Forbes}}

Early life

Getty was raised in San Francisco, California, where he attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory and the University of San Francisco.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-12 |title=Gordon Getty '56 Turns 90 — The Art of Giving and Lasting Change {{!}} University of San Francisco |url=https://www.usfca.edu/news/gordon-getty-56-turns-90-art-giving-and-lasting-change |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=www.usfca.edu |language=en}} He would also earn a B.A. in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He studied singing with Verna Osborne.{{cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Verna-Osborne-opera-singer-vocal-coach-102-2519526.php|title=Verna Osborne -- opera singer, vocal coach, 102|work=San Francisco Chronicle|author=Marianne Costantinou|date=April 30, 2006}}

Career

He joined the oil business to please his father; however, he eventually sold the family's Getty Oil to Texaco in 1986 for US$10 billion. In 1983, Forbes magazine ranked him the richest person in America with a net worth of a little over $2 billion.{{Cite web |title=Gordon Getty |url=https://www.goodreturns.in/gordon-getty-net-worth-and-biography-blnr1378.html#:~:text=Born%20into%20wealth%2C%20Getty%20inherited,billion%20by%20Forbes%20in%202020. |website=goodreturns}} His net worth was cited as $2.1 billion in 2020, making him the 391st richest person in the United States.{{Cite web|title=Forbes 400 - The Definitive Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans In 2020|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/|access-date=September 18, 2020|website=www.forbes.com}}

In 2002, Getty founded ReFlow, a company which temporarily purchases shares in mutual funds to save funds taxes and commissions.{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Gordon-Getty_IX01.html |title= #407 Gordon Getty |access-date=November 20, 2008| work=Forbes |date=August 3, 2007 }}{{Cite journal|last=Hibbard |first=Justin |title=How Gordon Getty Got To 'Aha!{{'-}} |journal=Business Week |date=October 10, 2005 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_41/b3954109.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519031820/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_41/b3954109.htm |archive-date=May 19, 2009 }}

=Classical music=

Among several professions, Getty is a classical music composer whose compositions include the opera Plump Jack, Joan and the Bells, piano pieces, and a collection of choral works. His one-act opera Usher House was performed by the San Francisco Opera in 2015. Aspiring to become an opera singer, Getty studied in the mid-1970s with Louise Caselotti, a mezzo-soprano who had been Maria Callas' voice teacher (1946–47). He and his wife have supported the fine arts, especially underwriting productions of the San Francisco Opera and the Russian National Orchestra.San Francisco Chronicle{{Full citation needed|date=September 2013}}

Getty's opera The Canterville Ghost was premiered on May 9, 2015, at the Leipzig Opera.

Personal life

On Christmas Day, 1964, he married Ann Gilbert (1941–2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada.{{Cite news|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=September 19, 2020|title=Ann Getty, 79, a Publisher and a Bicoastal Arts Patron|volume=170|page=B12|work=New York Times|issue=58821|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/obituaries/ann-getty-dead.html|access-date=September 20, 2020}}{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-2nd-getty-family-an-open-secret-20150331-story.html|title=Gordon Getty's second family was an open secret|first=Los Angeles|last=Times|website=Los Angeles Times |date=August 31, 1999}} Gordon and Ann Getty lived in a yellow Italianate mansion in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, with sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Over the years, Getty and Ann, a publisher and a decorator, expanded their living space, buying the house next door (to make room for his work at the piano) and then the house next door to that. They hosted charity events, opera stars, and fundraisers for politicians, including Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom's father, William Newsom, one of Gordon's friends since high school, managed the family trust for years.{{cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/23/the-getty-familys-trust-issues|title=The Getty Family's Trust Issues|newspaper=The New Yorker|date=January 16, 2023|last1=Osnos|first1=Evan}}

Gordon and Ann Getty had four sons: Gordon Peter Getty Jr (born 1965); William Paul Getty (born 1970); Andrew Rork Getty (1967–2015); John Gilbert Getty (1968–2020).

Getty's assets are managed by Vallejo Investments. Vallejo Investments is what's known as a "family office," an in-house financial team of specialized attorneys, accountants, and money managers.

Getty has a second family based in Los Angeles, including three daughters, with his former longtime companion Cynthia Beck.{{cite news |last1=Finz |first1=Stacy |date=August 29, 1999 |title=Getty's Secret Double Life |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Getty-s-Secret-Double-Life-Second-family-in-2911639.php |newspaper=The New Yorker}}

His donations to University of San Francisco helped build the Koret Health & Recreation Center, John Lo Schiavo, S.J. Center for Science & Innovation, and helped establish the J. Paul Getty Honors College Fund.

In popular culture

Gordon Getty's life as a composer was chronicled in Peter Rosen's documentary Gordon Getty: There Will be Music, which premiered on February 5, 2016, at Cinema Village in New York City.{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/article/gordon-getty-documentary-family-curse-music|title=How Music Helped Gordon Getty Escape His Family's Famous Curse|date=February 9, 2016}} It has been broadcast on PBS in the U.S. and Europe on ARTE, as well as film festivals and programs across the country.{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/ThereWillBeMusic/ |title=Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music|website=Facebook }}

Honors and awards

1986 – Outstanding American Composer, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts{{Cite web|url=http://www.instantencore.com/contributor/bio.aspx?CId=5006692|title=Gordon Getty Biography – InstantEncore|website=www.instantencore.com|access-date=April 4, 2016}}
2003 – Gold Baton, League of American Orchestras
2015 – University of San Francisco Alumnus of the Year{{Cite web|url=https://www.usfca.edu/news/gordon-getty-composer-and-philanthropist-named-usf-alumnus-of-the-year|title=Gordon Getty, Composer and Philanthropist, Named USF Alumnus of the Year|last=atemkar|website=University of San Francisco|access-date=April 4, 2016|date=October 5, 2015}}
2023 – San Francisco Conservatory of Music Dinner in his Honor{{Cite web |last=Kaliss |first=Jeff |date=December 18, 2023 |orig-date=December 18, 2023 |title=Gordon Getty Honored on the Eve of His 90th Birthday |url=https://www.sfcv.org/articles/music-news/gordon-getty-honored-eve-his-90th-birthday |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240121024303/https://www.sfcv.org/articles/music-news/gordon-getty-honored-eve-his-90th-birthday |archive-date=January 21, 2024 |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=www.sfcv.org |language=en}}

List of works

Opera

The Canterville Ghost
Usher House
Plump Jack
Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Cantata

Joan and the Bells

Chamber works

Four Traditional Pieces
Homework Suite
Kathie Trio

Choral works

Annabel Lee
Ballet Russe
Beauty Come Dancing
Cynara
The Destruction of Sennacherib
For a Dead Lady
Four Christmas Carols
Gretchen to Faust
Impenitent Ultima
La Belle Dame sans Merci
The Little Match Girl
Mephistopheles to Faust
The Old Man in the Night
The Old Man in the Morning
The Old Man in the Snow
A Prayer for My Daughter
There Was A Naughty Boy
Those Who Love the Most
Three Welsh Songs
St. Christopher
Victorian Scenes
Young America

Orchestral works

Ancestor Suite
Four Traditional Pieces
Homework Suite
Overture to Plump Jack
Raise the Colors

Voice and Orchestra

Cyanara
The Destruction of Sennacherib
Four Dickinson Songs
Gretchen to Faust
Hostess’s Aria
Kathie’s Aria
Mephistopheles to Faust
No, My Good Lord
Poor Peter
A Prayer for my Daughter
Where is My Lady?

Solo Instrument

Spring Song (for cello)
Ninna Nanna (for cello)
Winter Song (for cello)

Piano works

Ancestor Suite
Andantino
First Adventure
Four Traditional Pieces
Homework Suite
Scherzo Pensieroso
Tiefer und Tiefer

Songs

Four Dickinson Songs
Poor Peter
A Prayer for My Daughter
The White Election

Arrangements of existing works

All Through the Night – chorus and eight cellos
Danny Boy – voice and piano/voice and orchestra
Deep River – voice and piano/voice, chorus and orchestra
Silent Night – chorus and orchestra
Shenandoah – chorus and orchestra

Discography

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2025, Pentatone PTC 5187050)
An American Song Album (2019, Pentatone PTC 5186770)
Beauty Come Dancing (2018, Pentatone PTC 5186621)
A Certain Slant of Light (2018, Pentatone PTC 5186634)
The Canterville Ghost (2017, Pentatone PTC 5186541)
Out of the Shadows: Rediscovered American Art Song (2016, Pentatone PTC 5186572)
The Little Match Girl (2015, Pentatone PTC 5186480)
December Celebration: New Carols by Seven American Composers (2015, Pentatone PTC 5186537)
Usher House (2013, Pentatone PTC 5186451)
Piano Pieces (2013, Pentatone PTC 5186505)
The Hours Begin to Sing (2013, Pentatone PTC 5186459)
Orchestral Works (2010, Pentatone PTC 5186356)
Plump Jack (2012, Pentatone PTC 5186445)
The White Election (2009, Pentatone PTC 5186054)
And if the song be worth a smile (2008, Pentatone PTC 5186099)
Young America Choral Works (2005, Pentatone PTC 5186040)
Joan and the bells & Serge Prokofiev – Romeo and Juliet (2003, Pentatone PTC 5186017)