Alberto Vilar, a.k.a. Albert Vilar (October 4, 1940 – September 4, 2021) was an American investment manager who became particularly known as a patron of opera companies, performing arts organizations, and educational institutions. Following the collapse of his investment firm, Amerindo Investment Advisors, he was tried and convicted in November 2008 on charges of money laundering, investment advisor fraud, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud. He was sentenced in February 2010 to nine years in prison and released in 2018.
Originally from West Orange, New Jersey, Vilar earned an economics degree from Washington & Jefferson College, a liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. He then earned a master's degree in economics at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. In 1979, along with Gary Tanaka, he founded Amerindo Investment Advisors, an investment advisory firm based in San Francisco and New York, with offices in London. In 1981, Vilar made his first $1 million. Amerindo's main investment activities were in technology funds, which the stock market crash of 2000 severely affected. The value of the Amerindo funds declined sharply, and Vilar began to default on his pledges to arts institutions.
Vilar served on the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees.
Donations to opera companies and other organizations
The arts organisations to which Vilar pledged donations included:
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (ROH) in central London, where the Floral Hall, one of the major foyers of the redeveloped house, was named the "Vilar Floral Hall" in recognition of a 1999 pledge of £10 million. The ROH changed the name of its atrium to the Floral Hall in September 2005 after Vilar paid only a fraction of his original £10 million pledge. Subsequently, he pledged money for the "Young Artists Programme", several opera production sponsorships, and for the installation of seat back titles in the main auditorium.
The Salzburg Festival received its largest donation in its 81-year history from Vilar. He in turn received a full-page color photo of himself in every program book.
Metropolitan Opera was pledged amounts thought to total $45 million. With $12 million actually given to the company, he remains as its third largest donor.
The Kirov Opera located in the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia has been another major beneficiary of Vilar's support, which is said to have been around $14 million and was focused primarily on supporting the summer White Nights Festival.
Washington DC's Kennedy Center, under its President, Michael Kaiser who had developed a relationship with Vilar when the former was at the Royal Opera House, received donations to create an arts-management program, the "Vilar Institute for Arts Management" plus pledges for a program to bring the Kirov Opera to the Center on an annual basis. In 2001 Vilar pledged $50 million toward the Center's activities. Again, actual payments fell short, and the Center has had to seek alternative sources of financial support.
The Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera both received support from Vilar due to his connection to Plácido Domingo, who was then the General and Artistic Director of both companies. $10 million was pledged to each company.
The Maazel-Vilar Conductor's Competition.
New York University has the Alberto Vilar Global Fellows in the Performing Arts program, which began in 2002 with a $23.4 million donation to attract and bring young performing artists to study in New York for two years. It has been described by NYU as a Rhodes Scholars-style program.
Beaver Creek, Colorado has the Vilar Center for the Arts and the Ford Amphitheater/Vilar Pavilion in Vail, Colorado.
Washington & Jefferson College began construction of a new technology building, which was to be named "The Vilar Technology Center," based on a multimillion-dollar pledge by Vilar. With the pledge failing to fully materialize, funds were diverted from elsewhere, allowing for the scaled back building, along with its scaled back name of the "Technology Center" to be completed.
Vilar Distinguished Artist Series at Washington & Jefferson College, featuring Lorin Maazel and Susan Graham
As a result of his philanthropy, in 2002 the Americans for the Arts organization gave him their National Arts Award, for "Corporate Citizenship in the Arts".
As noted in James Stewart's 2006 New Yorker profile of Vilar, at some point in 2002, Vilar was hospitalized for a series of operations on his back, and he claims to have nearly died as the result of complications: "they were ready to give me the last rites". There was speculation that he might have missed some planned donations as the result of his illness.