Tessa Ader, a Charlottesville philanthropist whose contributions include a gift to fund the establishment of a performing arts center at the University of Virginia, died Jan. 5. She was 92.
Ader was born in Surrey, England, in 1933 and moved to the United States when she became vice president of the Antique Porcelain Company. She and her husband, Richard M. Ader, were persuaded to visit Charlottesville by their friend and UVA alumnus Joe Erdman. The couple eventually moved to Charlottesville.
Ader poses for a photo with her husband, Richard. The two contributed heavily to the University’s arts programs. (Contributed photo)
After Richard Ader’s death in 2019, Tessa Ader donated $50 million to establish the planned Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center, which will provide a home for concerts, theater, dance and interdisciplinary art forms.
Richard Ader was a trustee of the Robert and Joseph Cornell Memorial Foundation, founded in honor of the artist Joseph Cornell and his brother Robert. The foundation supports a number of nonprofits with a focus on the arts. The Aders worked with Erdman and his wife through the foundation.
Erdman called the Aders’ move to Charlottesville “an accident of history,” though he acknowledged he was at least one reason they settled in the area.
“I don’t want to take credit for it,” he said, “but it is hard not to. It is why they had any interest in Virginia.”
Tessa Ader established the Richard M. and Tessa G. Ader Endowed Fund for Music Education at the University of Virginia in support of the Charlottesville Symphony, a UVA program. She also created the Ader Emerging Artist program at the Charlottesville Opera, which provides early career opera singers with professional experience.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have known Tessa Ader and have heard so much about her passion for the arts, and particularly the arts here at the University of Virginia,” said Jody Kielbasa, vice provost for the arts at UVA. “It is astonishing to think of the creativity, the stories, and the experiences that Tessa’s extraordinary generosity will launch here, and the differences she will make in the lives of artists and audience members for generations to come.”
