Prominent Performing-Arts Patron Misses Payments to Several Groups

Alberto Vilar, a financier who has pledged some of the biggest amounts of money ever to opera and classical-music groups, is late in fulfilling commitments to the Washington Opera, and news reports say he is behind in making good on pledges to several other organizations.

Mr. Vilar, an investor who founded a company that focuses on Internet stocks, has seen his finances suffer in the past few years and as result, he said, he has had to reschedule some payment plans to the charities he supports. But he said in a statement last week that he would honor his commitments fully. “It is my expectation that business conditions will improve sufficiently by the middle of next year, which would go a long way toward enabling me to continue my active philanthropy.”

The Washington Opera has removed Mr. Vilar’s name from its Vilar/Domingo Young Artist Program, which was designed to support the artistic development of young opera singers and coaches. Mr. Vilar had promised to give $1-million a year for five years to the project, which got under way in March. The program is also named for Placidó Domingo, the opera’s artistic director.

“Attempts have been made to reach Mr. Vilar,” a spokesman said, adding, “we are looking for some new funding.”

The Metropolitan Opera, in New York, created a bad-debt reserve last month to cover a pledge of $4-million that Mr. Vilar had made for productions of War and Peace and Fidelio, according to The New York Times. The Times also reported that Mr. Vilar was late with a $500,000 payment to the Los Angeles Opera, had missed a payment to a conducting competition in New York that was held last month at Carnegie Hall, and had failed to pay for productions by the Lyric Opera of Chicago that he had pledged to underwrite.

Spokesmen for the Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, and the conductors’ competition said the groups had decided not to comment on Mr. Vilar’s gifts beyond what they told The Times, and The Chronicle’s calls to the Lyric Opera were not returned.

Mr. Vilar founded Amerindo Investment Advisors, a New York company that invests in emerging-technology growth stocks. He told The Chronicle last year that he intended to give hundreds of millions of dollars to the performing arts, education, health care, and other favorite causes despite the downturn in technology stocks. “I don’t think there’s any question that the Internet is going to be the biggest thing in 50 years,” he said. But he has seen the value of his company dwindle, with the assets it manages declining from $5.5-billion in 1999 to slightly more than $1-billion this year.

Even with the change in Mr. Vilar’s fortunes, some of the charities he has supported say they are optimistic that he will follow through on his commitments.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, for example, last year made a new timetable for payments on two pledges to the organization totaling $50-million. Mr. Vilar is making payments now, and they are on schedule, according to Tiki Davies, a spokeswoman.

In addition, Washington and Jefferson College, in Washington, Pa., is on track to complete a new, $26-million technology center by next September, according to Tracey Kolodziej, a spokeswoman. Mr. Vilar has commited the bulk of the money for that project, but the college declined to say exactly how much that was or whether Mr. Vilar had made the payments.

The college, Mr. Vilar’s alma mater, plans to proceed with its Vilar Distinguished Artists Series, which gives students an opportunity to see world-renowned performers.

Ms. Kolodziej would not say whether Mr. Vilar was meeting the timetable for payments on that project either, noting that it was the college’s policy not to comment on the specifics of any relationship involving a gift. However, she said: “He is one of our most distinguished and generous donors.”