Henry Mancini Institute to close

The Henry Mancini Institute, an organization that provided training for Los Angeles-area music students, said Monday it would close at the end of the year.

Ginny Mancini, president of the institute’s board of directors and widow of the famed composer for which it was named, said the decision was necessitated by the conflict between escalating costs and “the ominous landscape of funding for the arts.”

Besides sponsoring music education programs at local schools, the 10-year-old institute held an intensive summer program at UCLA that enabled about 80 young musicians a year to work with professionals, culminating in a series of public concerts.