UNDERWRITER RECOGNITION
The Tarasenka Pankiv Fund
LA Opera extends its gratitude to the Tarasenka Pankiv Fund for the support of this season-opening production of Il Trovatore. Tara Colburn established the fund through a bequest in her will, having served as an active board member of LA Opera since the company’s founding in 1986. She was one of the company’s most dedicated supporters for nearly two decades before her death in 2003. In her farsighted devotion to the company, Ms. Colburn planned this generous endowment to ensure in perpetuity that LA Opera would continue to bring world-class opera productions to future generations of Angelenos.
Ms. Colburn, and subsequently this fund, have now underwritten ten LA Opera productions to date. She also most generously supported the company’s supertitles for many years. She would be pleased to know that supertitles have continued to be funded by Dunard Fund USA in her honor since 2010. Her commitment to music extended worldwide, as she gave generously to the Metropolitan Opera, Long Beach Opera, LA Chamber Orchestra, LA Master Chorale, Glyndebourne Festival and the Salzburg Festival, where she served on the board of the American Friends of Salzburg.
Her love of music and the arts began in early childhood. Born Tarasenka Pankiv in Zagreb, Croatia, she studied piano with her concert pianist mother. Her grandfather was director of the Zagreb Conservatory.
She once wrote “I will be proud to have played a small part in a very important cultural contribution to the life of our community.” Over the course of many years, she played a starring role in the history of the company. We are grateful to Tara Colburn and the Tarasenka Pankiv Fund for over three decades of vital contribution, and a legacy of support that continues to carry LA Opera into the future.
The Alfred and Claude Mann Fund
LA Opera is proud to present Il Trovatore, made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of the Alfred and Claude Mann Fund. The Alfred Mann Trust created this fund with a series of gifts that now have an impact of over $10 million in support.
The Manns established the fund as a way of showing their devotion to LA Opera. It underwrites two productions each season, enabling us to raise the curtain on a host of memorable presentations, which have included La Bohème (2012 and 2016), Tosca (2013 and 2017), Carmen (2013), The Barber of Seville (2015), El Gato Montés (2019), The Light in the Piazza (2019), Roberto Devereux (2020) and now this monumental production of Il Trovatore.
The Manns’ connection to LA Opera is also a love story. Claude’s own passion for opera brought Al to the art form. As LA Opera Honorary Board Chair Marc Stern noted, “Al hadn’t been an opera lover, but he loved Claude and therefore loved the opera.”
A biotech entrepreneur, Al Mann founded 17 companies in his lifetime and was the CEO of MannKind Corporation, a company focused on developing new, lifesaving treatments for diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. He also served as chair of the Alfred Mann Foundation, a trustee of USC and a board member of the LA Philharmonic. Claude Mann is a philanthropist who earned success in the restaurant business. She has been a member of LA Opera’s board since 2008.
Al passed away in February of 2016. With each thrilling production underwritten thanks to the Manns’ generosity, his legacy in the arts—and his love story with Claude—lives on.
The Jane and Peter Hemmings
Production Fund,
a gift from the
Flora L. Thornton Trust
When Peter Hemmings (above left) took the helm of a fledgling opera company in 1984, the prospects for success were doubtful at best. What started that year on a shoestring budget is now known as LA Opera. That it quickly grew to become one of the world’s most important opera companies is a testament to Hemmings’ tenacity, intellect and vision as founding general director.
“I have always believed that opera is a vibrant, living art form with an exciting future, not simply a museum art,” said Hemmings. His drive to affirm opera’s place in Los Angeles, and to ensure its continued relevance, set the course for LA Opera to carve a niche as a place for innovation as well as tradition.
Hemmings’ contributions are so interwoven into the fabric of LA Opera that the late Flora Laney Thornton (above right) established the Jane and Peter Hemmings Production Fund in 2001 as a permanent memorial. A founding board member and devoted benefactor of LA Opera, Mrs. Thornton noted that Peter Hemmings “triumphed as a steadfast and passionate leader, nurturing LA Opera and directing it toward its place in the spotlight.”
Mrs. Thornton was elected a Life Trustee in 1989. Her generosity to the company led to the establishment of one of the nation’s premiere artist training programs. Now called the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, her legacy is carried on by other generous donors.
LA Opera is grateful for Mrs. Thornton’s continued endowment support in recognition of Jane and Peter Hemmings, which is providing generous support for this season’s production of Il Trovatore.
The Blue Ribbon
LA Opera expresses gratitude to all the members of The Blue Ribbon for their generous support of Il Trovatore. The Blue Ribbon has helped provide valuable support to LA Opera from its earliest days and to young people throughout the Los Angeles area through their support of the company’s community and education programs. In recent years, they have provided production underwriting support for La Bohème (2019), Don Carlo (2018), The Pearl Fishers (2017), Macbeth (2016), Madame Butterfly (2016), The Ghosts of Versailles (2015), Lucia di Lammermoor (2014) and Thaïs (2014), as well as special support for A Streetcar Named Desire (2014). Over the past 18 seasons, The Blue Ribbon has contributed approximately $4.9 million to LA Opera, an impressive legacy of devoted generosity.
The Blue Ribbon was founded in 1968 by Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who mobilized a dedicated group of women leaders to sustain and support The Music Center and its resident companies. The Blue Ribbon has since raised more than $78 million to promote and nurture the performing arts and arts education in Los Angeles. Its committed membership of approximately 400 members is led by Terri Kohl, president and Jill Baldauf, chairman.
Since 1970, the annual Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival has welcomed more than a million fifth graders to The Music Center, where many of the participants experience live performance for the first time. This three-day event of performances and arts activities is one of the longest ongoing free arts education programs in California.
LA Opera is grateful to The Blue Ribbon for its generous support over so many years, as a valued member of both The Music Center and LA Opera families, with special recognition for their inspiring work with children, an essential part of the company’s mission.
THE Orden Family
Special additional support for Il Trovatore is given by the Orden family in loving memory of their beloved patriarch and matriarch, Ted and Hedy. Opera served as the main form of entertainment in their native Romania and Il Trovatore was Hedy’s favorite.
Ted and Hedy’s life exemplified the American dream. Survivors of the Holocaust who also lived through the scourge of communism, they immigrated to the U.S. in 1959 with their two young daughters. Ted was a visionary entrepreneur who founded Thrifty Oil Co. In 1960, the year their third daughter was born, they opened their first service station. They rapidly expanded their business to become the largest independent owner and operator of service stations on the West Coast.
Hedy and Ted's proudest accomplishment was in reuniting their extended family and bringing them to America. They never failed to express gratitude for the opportunities their new nation provided to their family. They were both born in Romania to prominent Jewish families. During World War II, Ted was sent to a forced labor camp and Hedy was sent to Auschwitz. After the war, Hedy met Ted Orden, who proposed marriage after 30 minutes. They were the loves of each other's lives and were happily married for 69 years. Their family misses the unconditional love, strength, determination and courage of their beloved parents. They will forever be grateful for the life and opportunities that they created for them.
