The Arts Gain Vital Support from Caltech Professor

The endowed Steven and Mie Frautschi Fund for Performing and Visual Arts will help enhance the student experience.

During his almost six decades teaching at Caltech, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus Steven Frautschi was known for sparking scientific curiosity among his students. His efforts were recognized with three ASCIT (Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology) teaching awards as well as the prestigious Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

However, beyond the world of physics and outside the classroom, Frautschi made it his mission to develop his students' artistic interests. He would lead trips to downtown Los Angeles so students could hear classical music at the Disney Concert Hall, something he felt they wouldn't do spontaneously if he wasn't there to give them a nudge.

"I think most of us, almost all of us, should have other substantial interests besides STEM," says Frautschi. "And among the arts, the one that by far most engages our particular students is music."

Now, inspired by his family's love of the arts and his deep connection to Caltech, Frautschi has contributed $500,000 to establish the endowed Steven and Mie Frautschi Fund for Performing and Visual Arts to support the Institute's arts programs and activities.

A Family's Love of Music

Frautschi hopes the fund will expand the range of opportunities for students to engage with the arts—whether through new musical equipment or instruction from outside coaches. The specifics, he says, he leaves in the capable hands of Director of Performing and Visual Arts Glenn Price.

"This generous gift will allow us to grow our performing and visual arts programs in ways we have yet to imagine," says Price. "Steve understands the transformative value of the arts, and his support over the years truly has enriched our students' experiences. With this fund, he has ensured that the program will be of benefit for years to come."

Frautschi is the first to admit that his own experiences in the arts primarily have been as a devotee rather than a practitioner. He took piano lessons as a teenager and played second bassoon in the high school orchestra. His wife Mie, who passed away in 2020, sang in a church choir while in college in Yokohama, Japan. "So that's our entire musical background," he says. "But from that very modest start, we both emerged as lifelong lovers of classical music."

The couple's two daughters, Jennifer and Laura, took Suzuki method violin lessons from a very young age. "It turned out," says Frautschi, "that one of the pioneer Suzuki instructors in the United States lived within a mile of us in Altadena." The family spent summers in Aspen, Colorado, and when the girls were high school age, they were both admitted to the Aspen Symphony Orchestra. It was here that they played with both professional musicians and violin students from Juilliard who performed every summer. Both daughters became musicians—Jennifer is now a two-time GRAMMY nominee with a busy schedule as a soloist and chamber musician, while Laura is an artistic director and member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Laura has also recorded numerous albums and performed throughout the US and Asia with the piano trio Intersection.

"We were delighted with that outcome," says Frautschi.

Building a Home for the Arts

At Caltech, Frautschi's involvement with the arts grew in the early 1990s when then-president Thomas Everhart convened a committee to study the state of student affairs. As a member of that committee, Frautschi realized that while the arts program was "very skillfully carried out" it still held a peripheral place at the Institute.

Later, as Master of Student Houses (MOSH) responsible for promoting a positive undergraduate experience within the Institute's residential house system, Frautschi formed his own committee to help support the performing arts. The group continues today under the helm of Paul Asimow, the Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geology and Geochemistry.

While serving as MOSH, Frautschi initially took students to the LA Opera. When Disney Hall was built, he replaced the opera with visits to the new concert hall, a practice he continued for almost two decades. The tickets for the students, Frautschi recalls, were paid for by donations from several Caltech alumni.

"That experience made me realize how helpful it could be to have support from interested parties off campus," he says.

Frautschi knew that rehearsal space for music students was scarce and there was competition from other organizations on campus for the space that did exist. His wife suggested donating their Aspen condo to Caltech in order to one day fund a dedicated rehearsal room.

That plan came to fruition when the Winnett Student Center was demolished to make way for the Hameetman Center in 2018. Thanks to the Frautschis, plans for the new student hub included an airy second-floor rehearsal space.

"We managed to get it done with real attention to acoustics," says Frautschi of the high-ceilinged, spacious room.

Frautschi has many fond memories of sharing his passion for music with Caltech students. Among the standouts are Friday evenings at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, when Frautschi arranged for students to meet with Ingrid Hutman, a violist in the orchestra and a friend of his daughter. "We would stand in the bar, and the students would chat with Ingrid and her cellist sidekick," he recalls with a smile.

Though Frautschi insists he "wasn't especially good at music as a youngster," music has sustained and inspired him throughout his life, he says.

"I can't even imagine a life without the arts."