Carol Henry
Los Angeles Opera

Budget 1 Honoree
(Annual Company Budget Over $15M)

Carol F. Henry is one of LA Opera’s most dedicated and involved board members, serving since the company’s inception in 1986. As a founding board member, and through her continuous 31 years of board membership, she has help lead the company’s rapid growth. Prior to LA Opera’s creation, she helped found the Opera League of Los Angeles and served as its president, which helped in the establishment of LA Opera.

At LA Opera, Ms. Henry has served on the Executive Committee and on all other board committees throughout her 10 continuous three-year terms, acting as chair of the Development Committee over multiple terms. Before serving as president of the board from 2005 to 2012, she held the position of vice chair. She is currently the chair of the Executive Committee.

Ms. Henry and her husband, Warner, are among LA Opera’s most generous donors, helping establish the Founding Angels, the first of the five Angels campaigns, in which donors provide extraordinary support of $1 million or more over four years. Through the Carol and Warner Henry Production Fund for Mozart Operas, they have underwritten eight LA Opera productions.

Ms. Henry is active in the community, having served on many boards, and she is currently on the board of counselors for USC’s Thornton School of Music.

R. Jamison Williams
Michigan Opera Theatre

Budget 2 Honoree
(Annual Company Budget $3M – $15M)

R. Jamison “Rick” Williams is in his 15th year as chair of Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT). He is one of the company’s most consistently generous donors and its most vocal advocate and problem-solver. After leading the company through the 2008 recession, which hit Detroit harder than most other cities, and its near financial collapse four years later, Mr. Williams reached his defining moment as chair. He relentlessly negotiated with the company’s consortium of debtors to forgive $7 million of debt in return for paying $11 million cash within six months. He then provided a significant personal leadership gift and influenced other MOT supporters to join him. The debt was restructured, and a new $5 million mortgage was negotiated — by Mr. Williams — thus avoiding foreclosure and bankruptcy. It was a complex and herculean task.

Today, Michigan Opera Theatre is a vibrant, healthy and growing company in the midst of an ambitious $50 million “Historic Path to a Bold Future” campaign for which Williams has again stepped up with a critical leadership gift.

Mr. Williams is a quiet, charismatic and inspirational leader who always does more than expected and never asks more of others than he gives himself.

Henry Fogel
Chicago Opera Theater

Budget 3 Honoree
(Annual Company Budget $1M – $3M)

Henry Fogel has been a vital part of the Chicago Opera Theater’s board since 2009 and currently serves on its Governance, Finance, Audit and Executive Committees. He was board president from 2013–2017.

Mr. Fogel exemplifies leadership with an extensive list of honors and accomplishments. In 2009, he was appointed dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, before which he served as president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras (2003–2008). From 1985–2003, he was president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, leading the organization through a period of enormous change, increasing the orchestra's endowment from $19 million to over $160 million, and overseeing the $125 million renovation of Orchestra Hall. From 1981–1985, Mr. Fogel was executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. He was also the orchestra manager of the New York Philharmonic from 1978–1981.

Mr. Fogel has served on the boards of other notable nonprofits, including Chicago Classical Music Recording Foundation, the Avery Fisher Artist Program and the classical radio station WFMT, to name a few. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from Roosevelt University, Northwestern University, the Curtis Institute and Columbia College in Chicago.

John Serrage
Opera Maine

Budget 4/5 Honoree
(Annual Company Budget Under $1M)

Dr. John Serrage was a founding supporter of Opera Maine in 1995, and he has remained committed ever since to the importance of the company’s mission and its contribution to the vibrant arts scene in Northern New England.

As a fervent believer that opera companies have a responsibility to provide training opportunities for young singers, Dr. Serrage cultivated and managed Opera Maine’s Young Artist Program for many years. He has also set the tone for other trustees to follow in terms of his level of financial support and the elegant atmosphere and social milieu he has created around participation with the company.

He spent most of his professional career as director of neonatology at Maine Medical College in Portland and as director of maternal and child health for the state of Maine. After retiring from the medical profession, he attended Harvard University to earn a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies. He then spent 10 years working at archaeological excavations in Israel under the auspices of the University of South Florida. Dr. Serrage volunteers for Greater Portland Landmarks, teaches a course on opera at the University of Southern Maine's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and only recently retired as organist of his church.