“Santa Cruz is the kind of place where you can play a meaningful role in anything you’re interested in,” said Diane Klein, “and make a difference.” Diane (pronounced Dee-On) and husband Richard (or Dick) know because they have been involved in the arts and community life in Santa Cruz since moving to Aptos in 1974.
The Kleins married 65 years ago and, “We’re more in love now than when we started out,” said Dick. Music has been a big part of their lives and love, and their shared interests include classical music and poetry, so it’s natural that the Santa Cruz Symphony is a major part of their lives.
Diane grew up with a musical family life that included radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, seeing Carmen performed at the Hollywood Bowl, and attending concerts at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Dick’s family includes brother Kenneth Klein who served as Maestro of the Santa Cruz Symphony during the 1980s.
The Kleins support of the Symphony includes attending concerts, housing musicians, donating to the Symphony operating budget and the Endowment Fund, and membership in the orchestra’s Legacy Society.
“We can’t praise the Symphony enough under the leadership of Danny Stewart,” said Diane, “and part of our delight is that he performs contemporary music, which is very important to us.” Dick added, “Stewart’s Social Media is a very meaningful work because it deals with contemporary issues in our politics and society.”
Orchestral music that reflects our social and political world is on the rise, and the trend led the Kleins to commission an orchestral work by Karim Al-Zand. The Prisoner describes the travails of a Yemeni man captured by bounty hunters in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo where he spent 4,000 days and nights without being charged before dying. The work was premiered last year at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music of which the Kleins are supporters and have served on the board.
They are also members of Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and Jewel Theater, and they support Cabrillo Stage. Their community involvements have included work to form a marketing co-op for apple farmers and pro-bono legal work for non-profits.
The Kleins met as Stanford students when Dick was Sports Editor of the Stanford Daily while fellow Santa Cruz Symphony supporter Rowland Rebele was Editor-in-Chief. Today they walk to concerts at the Civic Auditorium from their home across the street.
-- Written by John Dickinson