In 2012 The Gerry & Franca Mulligan Scholarship was established at the Juilliard School in New York. Each year it awards a deserving Juilliard jazz student with a preference shown to saxophone players, composers and conductors. The Juilliard Jazz Program also incorporates Gerry’s music into their repertoire with an annual concert.
The Foundation has collaborated with two of the world’s most prestigious music conservatories: the Royal Conservatory of Liège, Belgium, in 2014 and the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milano, Italy, in 2015, awarding scholarships.
In 2016 the Foundation began supporting KEYS: an inner-city program in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which provides musical instruction to children in need. The Foundation has also awarded scholarships to music students through the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
The Foundation assists composers and arrangers by providing free unlimited access to the Gerry Mulligan Music library.
Since 1999, the Gerry Mulligan Permanent Collection has been on display at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
When composing “Entente”, Gerry felt the need to draw, thus giving visual form to his notes. The art he created led to an exhibition of Gerry’s original drawings at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège, Belgium, in March 2014. Daniel Sluse, the Academy Director, created a beautiful catalogue of Gerry’s artwork. The exhibition featured an accompanying performance of Gerry’s chamber composition “Octet Sea Cliff”, and a quartet also played Gerry’s music.
Following the exhibition, the Royal Conservatory of Liège programmed a concert of Gerry’s Symphonic repertoire including “Entente”, with conductor Patrick Baton.
In September and October 2015 during EXPO and MITO in Milano, Italy, Gerry’s original drawings were exhibited at the “Galleria Milano” with a concert of Gerry’s music featuring Mario Marzi, a member of the Foundation’s Advisory Board.
In October 2015 students of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milano, Italy, performed Gerry’s symphonic music.
All of the events in Belgium and Italy were organized by Jeannie Toschi Marazzani Visconti, International Director of the Gerry & Franca Mulligan Foundation.
On November 11, 2016, Franca Mulligan with Riccardo Muti donated the original musical manuscript “Octet for Sea Cliff” (aka “Portofino”) to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milano, Italy, after a performance of Gerry’s Concert Jazz Band music played by the conservatory students.
In April of 2017, Mia Toschi, Executive Director of the Gerry & Franca Mulligan Foundation, began an annual nationwide program for high school students. The Gerry Mulligan Challenge celebrates both Jazz Appreciation Month and Gerry’s birthday on April 6th.
