The Nicky Horvitz Gordon Memorial Fund, established in 2001, honors the life of Anita “Nicky” Gordon. Gordon was an interior designer cherished for her warmth and kindness by friends and family. Her imprint could be felt at Beth El Congregation, where she attended synagogue, and throughout her home, which Gordon shaped with her natural “feel for color and texture.” She was remembered by those who knew her as “a woman who strongly believed in her faith and a friend who could help wherever needed.”
Gordon was killed on Apr. 28, 2000, in an anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant shooting spree in the South Hills that left four others dead, one person gravely wounded and multiple houses of worship defaced. After Gordon’s death, admirers and mourners across the world “made memorial contributions to charities in Gordon’s name, as is suggested by Jewish tradition.” The fund continues that tradition — at the time of its creation, donations poured in from across the country — with its support of music in Pittsburgh.
The initial purpose of the fund was to support the storied Y Music Society, founded in 1925 at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association in Oakland (now the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh). An integral part of Pittsburgh’s classical music scene, the society brought luminaries like pianist Rudolf Serkin, guitarist Andrés Segovia and violinist Isaac Stern to the city at early points in the artists’ careers. But the slow passage of time and declining interest in its recital style ultimately forced changes, including a merger with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Nuance concerts in 2004. In 2008, the program’s final performance was by “violinist Andres Cardenes and pianist David Deveau,” at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. By the time it closed its doors, the series was the third-oldest recital series in the nation — a gleaming legacy left by the “pennies, nickels and dimes,” of immigrant Jews in the early 20th century.
Since the closing of the Y Music Society, the Nicky Horvitz Gordon Memorial Fund has continued to support pioneering works of classical music.