LA Opera thanks the generous underwriters who have made this prESENTATION of the St. Matthew Passion possible.
Régina and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten with the cast of The Clemency of Titus in 2019
John Neumeier’s celebrated production of St. Matthew Passion comes to the LA Opera stage with gratitude to the extraordinary support from GRoW @ Annenberg, a philanthropic initiative of the Annenberg Foundation led by Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, a vice president and director of the Annenberg Foundation. Along with his philanthropic partner and wife, LA Opera board member Régina Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg has been a steadfast supporter of LA Opera for many years, underwriting LA Opera productions, championing the company’s education programming, and as members of the Angels initiative. Thanks to the generosity of supporters such as Régina and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, LA Opera is recognized for its artistic excellence and its arts education programming for young people, helping to make Los Angeles one of the world’s premier cultural centers.
GRoW @ Annenberg’s funding is part of a robust portfolio of philanthropy dedicated to supporting humanitarian efforts across the globe as well as innovative projects in health, education, the arts, and civic and cultural life. At LA Opera, its support has brought numerous productions to the stage, including Salome (2017), Orpheus and Eurydice and Rigoletto (2019), Hansel and Gretel and The Clemency of Titus (2019), Cinderella (2021) as well as upcoming productions of Pelléas and Mélisande and The Marriage of Figaro. It has also engaged students in the arts through a sponsored poster art contest focused on LA Opera productions, enticing hundreds of young people to discover opera. When the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons were halted due to the pandemic, its continued generosity for LA Opera’s general operations helped the company weather this challenging time.
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten moved in 2015 with his wife Régina Weingarten and their family to Los Angeles from Paris, where they were active in making significant contributions to the arts, as well as other prominent organizations. In recognition of their dedication to the arts, both of them received the prestigious distinction of Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, France’s Legion of Honor Award.
Together and separately, they serve on many boards and committees including London's National Gallery and V&A Museum; Paris's Les Talens Lyriques, Opera & Ballet, Louvre Museum, and American Library in Paris; and across the United States, the National Park Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and, most recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
David and Linda Shaheen
A performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is a massive undertaking, whether in a concert hall or in church. LA Opera’s current presentation, with the addition of a world-class ballet company, is even more epic. For that reason, the company is grateful to David and Linda Shaheen, whose generous support has made these performances possible.
Last fall, the Shaheens made a matching grant to encourage increased support for the company during the challenges of the pandemic. In 2020, they joined the Angels program, which recognizes those who make a transformative commitment to the company. In 2016, they created the Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Next Generation Artist Award, named for David’s mother, who cared deeply about the welfare of young people beginning their careers. To date, the program has supported standout performances of Sean Panikkar as Gandhi in Satyagraha, Lisette Oropesa as Eurydice in Orpheus and Eurydice, J’Nai Bridges as Nefertiti in Akhnaten, and, earlier thisA performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is a massive undertaking, whether in a concert hall or in church. LA Opera’s current presentation, with the addition of a world-class ballet company, is even more epic. For that reason, the company is grateful to David and Linda Shaheen, whose generous support has made these performances possible. season, Issachah Savage in the title role of Tannhäuser, a production for which they also provided additional support as members of the consortium.
Piera Barbaglia Shaheen was a successful woman who built and ran a multinational business, became a generous contributor to her community, and was the center of a home infused with classical music and opera. She deeply believed in the power of education as a principal force for change, says David Shaheen, and through her generosity she provided college scholarships for over 2,000 children of her employees. She passed these ideals onto her son and daughter-in-law, who created The David & Linda Shaheen Foundation, supporting LA Opera’s education programming, scholarships for inner-city youth, as well as numerous arts, education and reproductive health programs. The legacy of Piera is also honored through the recent naming by Linda and David of the Alliance Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Health Services Academy.
LA Opera extends its gratitude to Linda and David Shaheen for their generous support for the company’s artistic excellence.
Ceil and Michael Pulitzer
LA Opera takes pride in challenging expectations about beloved classics through forward-thinking productions. Thanks to the generous underwriting support of Ceil and Michael Pulitzer and their dedication to opera that pushes the envelope, the company is now presenting an extraordinary balletic interpretation of the St. Matthew Passion.
The Pulitzers have helped to bring striking new productions and important contemporary works to the LA Opera stage since 2003. Since then, they have graciously helped to underwrite productions of Ariadne auf Naxos (2004), Grendel (2006), Porgy and Bess (2007), the Ring cycle (2010), The Turn of the Screw (2011), Einstein on the Beach (2013), Akhnaten (2016), Orpheus and Eurydice (2018), Satyagraha (2018) and a Barry Koskie production of La Bohème (2019). They have also generously supported the company’s 20th, 25th, and 30th Anniversary Angels leadership giving groups.
The Pulitzers’ involvement with LA Opera is an extension of their great commitment to the arts and culture and to Ceil Pulitzer’s longtime passion for opera. She first fell in love with opera as a student at Sacred Heart School in Manhattan. The school had a box at the old Metropolitan Opera House and she would attend with her friends as often as possible. Mrs. Pulitzer’s love for opera has only grown stronger over the years. In 2012, she was elected an honorary member of the LA Opera board of directors. She is an artist who attended the Art Students League, New York University, the School of Social Research and the University of Michigan. She is a trustee of The UCSB Foundation and a member of the world fellowship of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award International Association and the national council of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as well as a past member of the MOCA board of trustees.
Michael Pulitzer is a retired newspaper executive and former chairman of Pulitzer, Inc. His distinguished career at Pulitzer spanned 45 years, beginning in 1960 as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and ending with his retirement as chairman in 2005. He retired from the board of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., in 2007.
LA Opera gratefully thanks Ceil and Michael Pulitzer for their extraordinary generosity and dedication to LA Opera.
The Eva and Marc Stern Principal Artists Fund
Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham’s appearance as a soloist in St. Matthew Passion has been made possible thanks to generous support from The Eva and Marc Stern Principal Artists Fund. Through this leadership initiative, the Sterns underwrite the LA Opera appearances of the opera world’s most extraordinary artists each season. It is with great affection that they have selected to underwrite the appearance of their good friend, a magnificent artist who is beloved by LA Opera audiences for her appearances in recital and in productions of The Coronation of Poppea, The Merry Widow and Hansel and Gretel, and admired for helping to nurture the future of opera as Artistic Advisor of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.
Chairman of the company’s board of directors from 2002 to 2021, and now serving as Honorary Chairman, Marc Stern has been the driving force in bringing many of the world’s most influential artists to Los Angeles. The Sterns have been involved in nearly every aspect of LA Opera over many years, championing more than 15 ambitious projects including the Ring cycle, numerous new productions, and DVD releases of La Traviata (with Renée Fleming) and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (with Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone). Since the establishment of The Eva and Marc Stern Principal Artists Fund, they have underwritten the performances of Plácido Domingo in Nabucco, Don Carlo and the 50th Anniversary Concert, Susan Graham in Hansel and Gretel and Audra McDonald in concert. The Sterns were also the underwriters for Mr. Domingo’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Met. In recognition of their extraordinary longtime involvement and support of LA Opera and The Music Center, the Eva and Marc Stern Grand Hall in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was named in their honor in 2010. In 2021, the Sterns established an annual $50,000 award to celebrate and support extraordinarily gifted artists in opera: the Eva and Marc Stern Artist Award. This new award recognizes artists with deep connections to LA Opera and serves as an expression of gratitude for past and future artistic contributions to the company.
Marc Stern is Chairman of The TCW Group, Inc., a Los Angeles-based asset management firm. He was elected to LA Opera’s board in 1992 and is involved in numerous other philanthropic activities including serving on the boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee and the California Institute of Technology. Mr. Stern was formerly Vice-Chair of The Salk Institute and was Founding Chairman of both the Mayor’s Fund Los Angeles and of The President’s Council of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a minority owner of both the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Eva Stern is a clinical social worker and philanthropist, supporting Southern California youth through the combination of education and the arts. A board member of the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, in 2006 she led the effort to establish the Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School, an Alliance public charter high school. Inspired by her work with the high school, she established AMP, a special mentoring program for first-year college students. She also serves on the President’s Council at California State University, Los Angeles, on the board of The Blue Ribbon, and is a past chair of InsideOUT Writers, a creative writing program for youth in juvenile hall.
With deepest gratitude, LA Opera acknowledges Mr. and Mrs. Stern for their decades of committed leadership and extraordinary generosity.
