As the music started to blare at last year’s Levitt National Convening in Los Angeles, Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch looked across her table at Letatia Teykl, Levitt Pavilion Arlington’s executive director.
“Get up,” Levitt Hirsch told her.
Teykl hesitated. There were 200 Levitt Foundation leaders around them, all seated.
“Get up,” Levitt Hirsch repeated, now on her feet. Then, the 71-year-old started to dance, and everyone followed suit.
“She was going,” Teykl said, with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”
The room expected nothing less from Levitt Hirsch, Teykl said. The former board president of the Levitt Foundation seemed to bring music with her wherever she went, just as she spent her life bringing music to communities across the country.
Levitt Hirsch, 72, died from ovarian cancer on May 26 in her home in Los Angeles, leaving a legacy of arts, community and social justice. Her leadership of the Levitt Foundation took its nonprofit model of free-concert venues to the national stage, and it currently partners with over 50 towns to bring shows that welcome over 800,000 people every year.
Her impact is palpable in Arlington, where the Levitt Pavilion is almost synonymous with community. On most weekends, music and applause echo through downtown from the venue. The streets crowd with cars and minivans, each packed with the picnic baskets and lawn chairs of families en route to the lawn.
Each year, Levitt Pavilion Arlington hosts around 50 free concerts, as well as events like Arlington Pride and the city’s annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration, bringing in over 100,000 attendees in 2023. In the past two years, Levitt Pavilion Arlington has signed paid contracts with over 100 artists, most of whom are local.
“It has become, over time, a foundational support of our downtown economy,” said Maggie Campbell, president of Downtown Arlington, who worked to bring the venue to Arlington in 2008. “It is the vibrancy, and the continuity, and just the certainty that there’s going to be music on the lawn night after night, that keeps people coming back.”
Levitt Pavilion Arlington – 2023 numbers
- 71,550 – free concert goers
- 100,000 – special event and activity attendees
- 96 – livestreamed concerts
- 100+ executed artist contracts totaling
- $234,090 paid to artists
Campbell first met Levitt Hirsch in 2002 in Pasadena, California, where the two worked to develop the original Levitt Pavilion philanthropic model. At the time, Levitt Hirsch was a year into her involvement with the family foundation. She inherited the philanthropic name from her parents, along with their dream to make the Levitt Pavilion name nationally known.
“I had never met anyone quite like her,” Campbell said.
After a few years of helping to establish Levitt in Pasadena, Campbell moved to Texas and was hired to develop Arlington’s downtown.
Three weeks into her job, then-Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck called Campbell into his office to talk about a new initiative she had teased.
“What’s your big idea?” Cluck asked.
“I know this lady, Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch,” Campbell told him. “Gosh, mayor, if we could build a park across the street, I think I can help get the community excited, and we could bring her to town and maybe we could have a Levitt Pavilion here.”
Soon, Arlington was home to the first Levitt venue to be built from the ground-up, Teykl said.
“The pavilion was a big idea at the right time, and the community needed it,” Campbell said. “It didn’t take long; Liz had people eating out at the palm of her hand.”
Levitt Foundation Timeline
- 1966 – Mortimer and Mimi Levitt create the Levitt Foundation
- 1974 – Original Levitt Pavilion opens in Westport, Connecticut
- 2002 – Liz Levitt Hirsch and her father launch venture philanthropic model of public-private partnerships
- 2003 – Levitt Pavilion opens in Pasadena, California
- 2006 – Talks begin to bring a Levitt Pavilion to downtown Arlington
- 2008 – Multiple Levitt Pavilions open nationally, including Arlington’s
- 2009 – Levitt Pavilion Arlington’s first full year sees 48,000 attendees
- 2023 – Levitt Pavilion Arlington welcomes over 100,000 attendees
- 2023 – The Levitt Foundation announces it will spend down $150 million in assets by 2041
Levitt Foundation CEO Sharon Yazowski worked with Levitt Hirsch for 17 years. Her energy was dynamic, Yazowski said. Levitt Hirsch had the ability to generate genuine excitement in others over her shared vision.
The idea of Levitt was already compelling for city leaders, and she coupled it with charm and funding, Campbell said. The Levitt model is a three-party agreement between the city, which takes care of the space; the community, which engages with and donates to the Levitt; and the fully-staffed nonprofit organization, which puts everything together.
Levitt Hirsch always kept things personal in the foundation, Teykl said.
“It never was about a job,” she said. “It was about her love of music and getting it to the people, and enjoying the people in the music. She just did that naturally.”
The impact of the Levitt Foundation is seen in the spaces themselves, and how people from different neighborhoods share them, Campbell said. At any given concert, one family could have a five-course meal in their basket and sit next to another enjoying simple sandwiches.
“Their kids don’t know the difference,” Campbell said. “They all enjoy the art, and they’re learning about the art, and they think they’re just getting entertained. It has done so much to build community here.”
In 2023, Levitt Hirsch spearheaded the foundation’s decision to spend down its assets of $150 million by 2041, further investing in spreading accessible concerts to more U.S. communities.
In a way, the move acts as Levitt Hirsch’s final call to “get up” and enjoy music — an invitation that will reverberate for decades.
When asked what attributes of Levitt Hirsch the world could use more of, Campbell started tearing up.
“Her optimism,” she said, through tears. “Her belief in the power of the arts to transform communities, because I think that she did that here.”
Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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