Yes! I want to make a pledge. Name Pledge Amount $250 $500 $1,000 Other Amount $ Email Donations are 100% tax deductible. 32ND ANNUAL GALA WWW.OPERAFOUNDATION.ORG 2017 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 1 11/13/17 12:48 PM For more than a century, the name C.J. Lawrence has been synonymous with providing sound investment advice to individuals and institutions. Analytical rigor and proprietary investment disciplines are the foundation of our portfolio management process. CJL Ads PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE OPERA FOUNDATION FOR MANY YEARS 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 2 11/13/17 12:48 PM Dear Friends, Welcome to our 32nd annual Opera Gala! 2017 was another exciting year for the Opera Foundation. We received 180 applications for our audition in January. The representatives from the three opera houses, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Regio di Torino and the Bayerische Staatsoper picked three For more than a century, the name C.J. Lawrence exciting young singers for the 2017/18 season. Berlin chose Soprano Sandra Hamaoui, a French-American has been synonymous with providing sound singer from New York. She received our Björn Eklund Scholarship investment advice to individuals and institutions. and will sing the roles of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Ninette in L’amour des trois oranges, Annina in La Traviata among others. Berlin also picked Baritone, Dean Murphey winner of the Curt Engelhorn Scholarship and will sing supporting roles in twelve Analytical rigor and proprietary investment operas throughout the 2017-18 season. Tenor Joshua Sanders joins the Teatro Regio di Torino after disciplines are the foundation of our portfolio winning our Foundation's Amber Capital Scholarship. At the Teatro Regio, he will sing roles in Tristan und Isolde, Turandot, and Le nozze di Figaro among others. Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper kept management process. our 2016 winner of the Björn Eklund Scholarship, Tenor Galeano Salas, for a second year. The musical program tonight is heavily ‘Mozart’ themed. Our guest of honor, Soprano Kathryn Lewek is currently the Queen in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera. Katie began her career at the Deutsche Oper Berlin thanks to our sponsorship in 2011. We are so proud to welcome her here tonight. Joining Katie is the exciting Bass Tobias Kehrer from the Deutsche Oper Berlin, who is also performing with her at the Met. We are equally honored that fellow Deutsche Oper Berlin lyric Tenor Matthew Newlin will be singing for us tonight. Matthew joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2013 as a result of our program and regularly performs such roles as Tamino and Belmonte among others. To date we have supported 67 singers with professional scholarships. Our annual auditions in New York are today well established among young graduates of the major music schools. We are especially grateful to our long-term sponsors: The Ladenburg Foundation, the Eklund and Dupire families, and Amber Capital. Thanks to your commitment we have been able to maintain our programs for another year. Tonight, we welcome once again Intendant Dietmar Schwarz from the Deutsche Oper Berlin who has been a strong supporter of our Berlin program from the start and, for the first time, Maestro Gianandrea Noseda of the Teatro Regio di Torino who was instrumental in launching our Turin program in 2008 together with our friends here in New York Fiorenza Scholey Cohen and Joseph Oughourlian. This evening would not be possible without the dedicated work of our Executive Director, Elizabeth Walbroel. The board is grateful that Liz has kept our programs running smoothly for the past 24 years. As one the Opera Foundation’s Trustees since 1993 and its President for the past 12 years, I have been privileged to work with a very dynamic board of directors who make all of this possible. Thank you all for your loyal support. Wishing you an enjoyable evening! PROUD SUPPORTER OF Bernhard Koepp THE OPERA FOUNDATION President, The Opera Foundation FOR MANY YEARS 3 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 3 11/13/17 12:48 PM Dear Guests of the Opera Foundation and Friends of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, As I join you here in New York, the Deutsche Oper Berlin is preparing its next major premiere: Giacomo Mayerbeer’s LE PROPHETE is a masterpiece of Grand Opera as relevant and contemporary today as it was at its opening. Although it is set during the Lutheran reformation, the story of the innkeeper Jean de Leyde’s rise as leader of a radical sect and his subsequent suicide bombing and murder of hundreds at the palace of Munster resembles all too well the shocking incidents that appear in the headlines today. But Meyerbeer’s opera goes a step further: it seeks to understand why people become fanatics and presents to us human beings in all their complexity and ambiguity. And this is why we need art – and opera – today more than ever: because the answers are almost never as simple as we want them to be. Because understanding is more important than judging. It is our task to communicate this to every young singer who comes to our house: That opera is not only about wonderful singing, but about us. That the stories we present on the stage are not just a pretext for making music, but relate to our own lives. I strongly believe that this spirit is one of the most important things we can give to our scholars and looking back at all the wonderful young singers you have sent us over the years, I am proud to say that we have had great success. I am grateful that you have given us the chance to instill the spirit of opera in young artists for more than three decades, and I hope many more talented musicians will be able to enjoy this unique opportunity. For that, I offer my deepest thanks. Dietmar Schwarz General Manager, Deutsche Oper Berlin 4 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 4 11/13/17 12:48 PM Dear Guests of the Opera Foundation, The Teatro Regio has just opened the 2017-2018 Season with a beautiful production of Tristan und Isolde directed by Gianandrea Noseda. Also this year we welcome a young artist emerging from the selections of Opera Foundation to our stage. This happens only thanks to the tireless work of Bernhard Koepp, Elizabeth Walbröl and the support of Joseph Oughourlian, allowing each year, an American singer to participate in all of our productions. Since 2008, when our collaboration began, we have had the joy of hosting twelve young singers in Turin who have studied and worked with us, experiencing intense artistic and human experience that has led them to the development of a strong friendship. The star of this freshly started ‘adventure’ is Joshua Sanders, the 25-year-old tenor from New York, whose dream is that of continuing his musical education in Italy and to learn our language. Thanks to the scholarship made available by Amber Capital, he will see his dream come true. I hope that he, like the many young men and women who have preceded him, finds in Teatro Regio Torino, a new family and new stimuli for a life dedicated to art. Best Regards, Walter Vergnano General Manager, Teatro Regio Torino 5 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 5 11/13/17 12:48 PM Dear Members and Friends of the Opera Foundation, Over the past six years, the collaboration between the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Opera Foundation has proven to be a very important and fruitful support for our Young Artist Program. I am sure you will be happy to know that the young tenor, Galeano Salas, who was our Opera Foundation singer last year, is still part of the studio and will be singing this season interesting roles in operas such as Vêpres siciliennes, Die Gezeichneten, Nabucco and Traviata. Furthermore, he will be covering the role of Ein Sänger in Der Rosenkavalier for the Bayerische Staatsoper’s guest performance at Carnegie Hall as well as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi here in Munich. The origins of the Young Artist Program of the Bayerische Staatsoper - the Opernstudio - date back to the 1970s. Today, the program supports highly talented young singers from all over the world and prepares them for an international career as opera singers. Former members perform in important opera theaters worldwide. Our program typically runs one or two seasons and consists of role studies, voice lessons, acting and movement classes as well as language training. The fact that our program is completely integrated into the extensive performance schedule of the Bayerische Staatsoper with over forty different opera productions per year, gives our singers the invaluable experience to work side by side with the world’s leading opera singers, conductors and stage directors. Last season Galeano Salas began his term with us in Munich by singing the role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor as well as roles in operas such as La Bohème, Mefistofele and Semiramide aside Joyce di Donato. We are grateful that the Opera Foundation has continued to help us find interesting young American singers that we have welcomed in Munich over the past seasons. I wish you all the best on behalf of my colleagues at the Bayerische Staatsoper and I look forward to welcoming many of you at our performances in Munich. Sincerely, Tobias Truniger Artistic Director, Opernstudio 6 36628_Journal 2017.pdf 6 11/13/17 12:48 PM THE LADENBURG FOUNDATION Thank you for supporting a scholarship for 22 years bearing the name of Curt Engelhorn, the prominent German philanthropist. Thanks to your support, an entire generation of young American opera talent have launched their singing careers. Your support has had a major impact on the Arts and strengthened long standing cultural ties across continents.