$10 million gift from Larry Ellison’s Oracle keeps the music playing at the Nashville Symphony

Musicians often say the best moment of a concert is the breath just before the first note, when the whole hall leans in together.

This fall, that breath will come again at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, thanks to a $10 million gift from Oracle that keeps the Nashville Symphony’s 2026-27 season going and keeps all 77 musicians and its full-time staff on stage and at work.

The Symphony shared the news on Sunday: “Our 2026/27 season is back on.” Oracle is making the investment as part of a new strategic partnership to help Music City’s orchestra build a stronger, more sustainable future.

Mark Tillinger, the Symphony’s president and CEO, called it “a lifeline for the Nashville Symphony and the community we serve” and “a profound vote of confidence.”

“Oracle’s partnership gives us the ability to bring our musicians and our music back to the stage,” he said. “We’re immensely grateful for Oracle’s belief in the Nashville Symphony.”

Larry Ellison stands at the heart of this story. He founded Oracle in 1977, still serves as its executive chairman and chief technology officer, and remains its largest shareholder.

Ellison saw Nashville’s promise. In the spring of 2024, speaking to a packed room in the city, he announced that Oracle would build its world headquarters here. “It’s the center of our future,” he said.

Since then, that idea has grown into one of the country’s most imaginative corporate campuses.

Along the East Bank of the Cumberland River, 23 buildings will surround a central lake, joined by footbridges and streams, with an amphitheater, a lake house, rooftop solar, and a riverwalk where kayakers will drift past.

Ellison brought in Foster + Partners to design it and calls it “a park with buildings.” A pedestrian bridge will link the campus to downtown, and Oracle plans to bring 8,500 jobs to the city.

Oracle has always said it wants to be part of Nashville, not just a building in it. This gift makes that promise real. “Nashville is a city that understands how music can bring people together,” said Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk.

“We are part of this community and understand how important cultural institutions like this are to the residents of Nashville. As Oracle builds its new headquarters on Nashville’s East Bank, we are here to help ensure Nashville remains a vibrant place to live and work for generations to come.”

The city welcomed the news warmly. Mayor Freddie O’Connell, a longtime Symphony fan, called it “an extraordinary relief to be able to welcome a new corporate partner to arts philanthropy in Nashville,” adding that “Oracle’s generosity ensures that the upcoming season will not be lost. ” Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin called the Symphony one of the city’s crown jewels and said Oracle “stepped up in a massive way” to set it up “for years of success to come.”

The gift also continues a beautiful Nashville tradition.

For decades, Martha Rivers Ingram carried the Symphony forward as the city’s beloved “First Lady of the Arts.”

She dreamed the Schermerhorn into being and believed that “everyone ought to have access” to great music.

Oracle now joins the circle of friends who carry that vision forward.

For Ellison, the gift adds a new note to a giving life focused on big ideas. He signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, and his Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford is working on some of humanity’s greatest challenges in health, food, clean energy, and AI.

Over the years his foundation has supported medical research, and he has backed cancer research at USC. A symphony touches people differently.

It reaches nearly 550,000 Middle Tennesseans each year through free and low-cost programs. Young players in the Curb Youth Orchestra sit side by side with professionals, and students get free lessons from Symphony musicians through the Accelerando program.

The orchestra has won 14 Grammy Awards, and its recordings reach about 13 million listeners around the world.

Under music director Leonard Slatkin, the season ahead has something for everyone: “Top Gun: Maverick in Concert” on Oct. 7, the music of John Williams on Oct. 8 and 9, and “The Three Ms: Marsalis, Mozart, and Mendelssohn” on Oct. 16 and 17. The Symphony Ball shines on Dec. 12, and the Symphony Fashion Show follows in the spring.

On the East Bank, Ellison’s vision for Oracle’s new home is rising. Across the river, the music goes on.