Celebrating the Life Tessa Ader

The recent passing of historic UVA Arts benefactor Tessa Ader marked the final chapter of a life filled with love, art, a sense of adventure, and a legacy that will enrich the UVA and Charlottesville communities for generations to come. 

Ader’s historic lead $50 million gift to fund the building of a performing arts center is the largest gift to the arts in the University’s history and will transform the arts landscape by providing a state-of-the-art home for concerts, dance, theater and interdisciplinary art forms. 

“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 and executive director of the Virginia Film Festival. “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.” 

So how did this Surrey, England-born young woman find her way to Charlottesville? It took a little luck and plenty of pluck. 

After Ader graduated St. James College, a friend pointed her towards an opportunity to see the world as a purser on an ocean liner – hardly a common career path for young women in that day. She jumped at the chance, however, and boarded the “Orsovo,” traveling routes including London to Sydney.

Upon her return home, Ader answered an employment ad for a job with the Antique Porcelain Company in London and started work there the very next day. She worked her way up through the ranks of the company, becoming a vice president and transferring to its New York office, where one day someone suggested she meet the company’s attorney, Richard M. Ader. 

The two married in 1968 and lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side before Richard was asked to open a law firm office in Florida by his friend and colleague Joe Erdman, who would play a key role in their eventual move to Charlottesville. 

In the early 1970’s Erdman said, he suggested to Ader and his new bride that they take a trip to Charlottesville, home of his beloved alma mater. “I told Tessa it would remind her a little of the English countryside,” he said. 

While in Florida, Tessa began studying enameling, and she would go on to become a highly respected and award-winning enamellist and jewelry designer whose work was exhibited in juried Guild shows in Florida and Japan. 

The Aders eventually settled in Charlottesville, living in the Glenmore neighborhood before moving to University Village in their later years. While Erdman calls their migration here “an accident of history,” even he admits it is hard to remove his fingerprints from the process. “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.”

With Erdman and his wife Rosemary following soon after, the old friends began to work together again, this time through the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial, where Ader was a trustee. He appointed Erdman as a co-trustee in 2010.

While Erdman brought the Aders to Charlottesville, when they arrived there, they found a dear friend in UVA alum Melissa Young, now also a trustee of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. She and the Aders developed a cherished friendship that began in 2006 and included dinners and forays into the local cultural scene and more. “Tessa was lovely, warm, and elegant—the definition of a lady,” said Young. Eventually, Young introduced them to the Charlottesville Symphony, where they met Janet Kaltenbach. 

“Tessa’s love of music was deeply felt throughout her life,” Kaltenbach, who recently retired from her position, said. “Music was a source of joy, of comfort, of entertainment, of nourishment. Her legacy of giving carries with it an unspoken invitation to all the organizations in which she invested so generously to think bigger, to reach further, to do more. Charlottesville is richer as a result, and we are grateful for it.”

“Tessa’s love of music was deeply felt throughout her life,” Kaltenbach, who recently retired from her position, said. “Music was a source of joy, of comfort, of entertainment, of nourishment. Her legacy of giving carries with it an unspoken invitation to all the organizations in which she invested so generously to think bigger, to reach further, to do more. Charlottesville is richer as a result, and we are grateful for it.”

When mobility issues made it impossible to attend performances in person, Ader’s relationship with the Symphony continued, including through visits and private concerts at her University Village apartment by Symphony Concertmaster and UVA Professor of Music Daniel Sender.

Sender was literally packing for his Fulbright teaching fellowship in Hungary when Young drove to his house to tell him what he called the remarkable news of Ader’s $50 million gift for the UVA Performing Arts Center. 

Unable to attend the official announcement at a special Board of Visitors event at the Rotunda, Sender wanted to do something special. He composed the “Ader Anthem,” a piece built around notes representing the first three letters of her name: A, D, and E. He had a student perform the piece at the event and joined a livestream from Hungary to take in the proceedings. 

“It is hard to capture how important Tessa’s gift is for the music department and for the arts at UVA,” Sender said. “We have had a deep need for a home for the arts here forever and it was always a question of who would get the ball rolling. I was so grateful that Tessa saw this as an opportunity to act with this extraordinary gift.”

Sender shared this sentiment with Tessa on several occasions, including in a note her caretaker read to her on the day before her passing. 

Another piece of her legacy will live on in the new facility thanks to a gift she gave Sender a German-made violin Richard had played since he was a boy. The Charlottesville Symphony Society had it refurbished, and it is now in Sender’s care, who uses it to broaden the experience of students by allowing them to play an instrument far different from their own. 

Ader’s gift to the Charlottesville Opera created the Ader Emerging Artist Program, a six-week immersive experience that allows early career opera singers invaluable professional experience.

“Tessa was an artist who loved supporting other artists,” said Dr. Leanne P. Clement, general director of the Charlottesville Opera. “Thanks to Tessa, this program has gained national recognition, garnering more than 700 applicants each year. Charlottesville Opera is forever grateful for Tessa’s generosity to ensure young singers have the opportunity to work with renowned opera professionals, gain crucial performance experience, and advance their careers.”

Those looking to remember Tessa Ader are asked to consider donating to Charlottesville Opera, 226 High Street, Charlottesville, VA; the Charlottesville Symphony Society, P.O. Box 4206, Charlottesville, VA; the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, 3355 Berkmar Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22901 or the charity of their choice.