Neil Westreich, a native New Yorker, completed his studies in history and law at Cambridge University (Corpus Christi College) and Harvard Law School in the 1970s, before pursuing a 30-year career as a transactional lawyer at the leading New York international law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
Throughout his adult life, but particularly following his retirement in 2006, Neil has, consistent with his cultural and intellectual interests, engaged in philanthropic pursuits, largely centred on education, the fine arts and the performing arts. As a result of his long-standing ties to Great Britain, these philanthropic pursuits have, in addition to the LPO, principally involved Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (of which he is a lifetime Guild Fellow), the National Gallery, London (where he underwrites a senior curatorial position, the ‘Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings’, currently occupied by Christopher Riopelle), Britten Pears Arts, English National Ballet, Music Masters, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and the National Gallery of Ireland.
Similarly, in New York, Neil actively patronises many of the city’s well-known cultural institutions, including the Frick and Metropolitan art museums, the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York Public Radio, and a handful of the leading theatrical repertory companies. Neil also actively patronises the Berlin Philharmonic, for which he has been tasked with enlarging their international circle of benefactors.
In connection with his support of these British, American and German cultural institutions, since 2010, Neil has curated and hosted scores of musical and literary soirées at his home for their benefit.
Neil supports the chair of LPO Leader Pieter Schoeman.