Volume 1 | Issue 1
Spring 2009
Print-friendly version
Related Links
Support the Carolina Performing Arts
Learn about student giving at Carolina
UNC senior partakes fruit of the arts – and helps it grow
Editor’s note: This piece first appeared as a Donor Spotlight in Carolina Performing Arts programs covering events during January and February 2009.
Robert Antonio
As it turns out, Robert is a native Californian who, after serving in the U.S. Navy, began his college career at Mesa College in San Diego. He transferred to Carolina as a junior in 2007, selecting this area because he was looking for somewhere with strong growth in which to put down roots. Chapel Hill has suited him well except, as he notes, the weather. Unlike many transplanted Northerners, Robert finds it a little too cold here in the winter.
“If people thought small gifts had no power, we would have no grassroots support for any good cause. This is important.”
» Robert Antonio
Robert, now a senior economics major, is looking to develop a career in financial planning after earning his 2009 Carolina degree. Although he lives in Chapel Hill with his Scottish terrier Thomas, he works in the evenings for Fidelity Investments in Cary, a job that is helping him build the skills he will need in his new endeavor.
But why support Carolina Performing Arts? For Robert, this is a no-brainer. He was raised in a home where music was important and his music lessons began when he was in elementary school. He played the piano-accordion first, then moved to the clarinet in middle school and, later, to the piano. His mother, once a teacher, now works in the piano division of Yamaha and his father plays the piano by ear.
Robert still surrounds himself with music. Growing up, he attended concerts at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts where he heard Garrick Ohlsson, André Watts and others. When he came to Carolina, he was pleased to see that the relatively new Carolina Performing Arts was bringing distinguished classical artists to campus and came to Memorial Hall as often as he could. Last season, for example, he enjoyed performances by Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. These are artists whom he had heard before, in his vast classical CD collection. To this day, classical music is his favorite.
Robert thinks there’s nothing that remarkable about a student making a gift to support Carolina Performing Arts. He understands the power of an endowment to help a non-profit performing arts organization survive good times and lean. And he credits the Kenan Trust for giving Carolina Performing Arts the initial financial boost that allows Carolina students to hear the finest musicians from around the world. Robert gives because “every little bit counts,” he says. “If people thought small gifts had no power, we would have no grassroots support for any good cause. This is important.”
Although he grew up in a home where philanthropy was practiced, he says his particular support for Carolina Performing Arts as helping a bigger cause. “Students should give to this because it helps not only students, but society as a whole,” he believes. He worries about how the arts fare in economic downturns and is concerned that they are often the first programs to get cut. He does not want to see that happen here. So he will continue to support Carolina Performing Arts and to urge his fellow students to join him. And when Robert becomes a proud UNC alum, he promises to support the arts wherever his career may take him. His mother taught him from an early age, and he agrees, that “the arts are the fruits of humanity and we should all partake.” Robert understands keenly that partaking means ensuring they are there for all to enjoy for generations to come.