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| Fundraising
exceeds $15.6-million goal
Richard P. Kiphart succeeds Allan B. Muchin
as President and CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Board of Directors John D. Gray and Ben W. Heineman receive Carol Fox Award Baritone Nathan Gunn sings for annual meeting guests William Mason, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that Lyric has concluded its 51st season with an estimated surplus of $140,000. Lyric Opera has operated “in the black” for 18 of the past 19 years, an unparalleled record among the country’s major opera companies. The 2005/06 season comprised 83 performances and generated box-office revenues of $27,159,150. Fully audited financial statements will be available in late August. More than 277,000 tickets were sold for the subscription season, representing 95% capacity for seating. Lyric’s myriad education offerings, many of them free, served an additional 80,000 children and adults. The 2005/06 season included Bizet’s Carmen, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (new production), Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage (new production/Lyric premiere), Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Verdi’s Rigoletto (new production), Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (new production). Fundraising for the 51st season was very successful, with efforts exceeding the $15.6-million goal. “Lyric’s 51st season was highly successful artistically, with outstanding support from our audiences both through ticket sales and contributions,” Mason said. “Of particular note in our fundraising success was our Wine Auction 2006, organized by Lyric’s Women’s Board. This spectacular event netted more than $1,050,000.” The budget for the 2005/06 season was $49.2 million. (It is difficult to make an “apples-to-apples” comparison with the 2004/05 season, Lyric’s 50th-anniversary year, for which the budget was $58.2 million. In 2004/05 the company presented a mainstage season comprised of 78 performances, a 50th Anniversary Gala Concert, plus an additional 12 performances – three complete cycles of Wagner’s four-opera Ring cycle. 95% of the seats for the main season were sold; the Ring cycles and Gala Concert sold 100% of capacity. In total, 305,000 seats were sold in 2004/05.) During the May 15 annual meeting, the board of directors elected Richard P. Kiphart, Head of Corporate Finance, Principal, William Blair & Company, L.L.C., to serve as Lyric’s new president and CEO. Kiphart has been an active member of Lyric’s board of directors since 1999 and has served as executive vice president of the board since 2005. He succeeds Allan B. Muchin, who was elected as Lyric’s president in 2001. “Allan Muchin’s efforts for Lyric Opera have been nothing short of extraordinary,” said William Mason. “Since taking over as board president in 2001, he launched and completed our new $50 million ‘Look to the Future’ campaign to enhance Lyric’s endowment. A major component of this effort was the introduction of an endowed chair program, of which 18 of the 20 naming opportunities have now been spoken for. Allan Muchin was a major force in the overall success of Lyric’s 50th Anniversary celebration. On a personal note, I could not have asked for better counsel or encouragement during our five seasons of working together,” Mason said. Muchin will remain actively involved at Lyric in his new role as chairman. Richard P. Kiphart has worked for the Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Company throughout his professional life, beginning in 1965. He has served as head of corporate finance since 1995, having been with the department since 1980. In 1972 he became a general partner of the firm and was promoted to head of equity trading, where he served until 1980. In 1969 Kiphart joined William Blair’s institutional sales department. Kiphart earned a B. A. in engineering science from Dartmouth College in 1963 and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1965, after which he joined William Blair & Company. Shortly thereafter he left to serve as an officer in the U.S. Navy aboard a minesweeper during the Vietnam War, and then returned to the firm. Kiphart served as chairman of Concord EFS, Inc., a NYSE company in the credit-card processing industry, which merged with First Data Corporation in 2004. Kiphart serves on the boards of First Data Corp. and Nature Vision, Inc. He is chairman of Electric City Corporation and of Saflink Corporation. From June 2001 to June 2005 Kiphart was chairman of Chicago’s Merit School of Music, for which he led a $19-million capital campaign. (The new facility provides free music lessons to more than 4,000 inner-city children.) In June he will become chairman of the Erikson Institute, a Chicago graduate school in child development. Kiphart is on the board of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an organization formed in 2002 by rock star and social activist Bono, which aims to reduce poverty in Africa through advocating international policy changes (the acronym also stands for Democracy, Accountability, Transparency, Africa). Kiphart, 64, lives with his wife Susan in Winnetka. He is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lyric’s highest honor, the Carol Fox Award, was presented to John D. Gray, and Ben W. Heineman during the annual meeting. John D. Gray, now chairman emeritus of Hartmarx Inc, was Lyric’s board fundraising chairman from 1984 to 1996, helping to raise more than $100 million for Lyric Opera during that time period. He has served on the board of directors since 1972, becoming a life director in 2000. Ben W. Heineman, with his wife Natalie, have sponsored several new productions for Lyric including the beloved Barber of Seville in 1989/90 (since revived in 1994/95 and 2000/01) and Billy Budd in 2001/02, and cosponsored last season’s production of Der Rosenkavalier. In 1973 Heineman was elected to the board of directors, and became a life director in 1988. Over the years the Heinemans have contributed generously to the Great Opera Fund, Building on Greatness Capital Campaign, and Annual Campaign. Guests at the May 15 annual meeting were not only treated to good financial news: baritone star Nathan Gunn, who will appear in Lyric’s 2006/07 production of Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte, sang for the more than 300 guests attending the dinner meeting at the Four Seasons. Women’s Board member Suzette Bross Bulley chaired the event. Lyric’s annual meeting dinner was sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kirkland & Ellis. Lyric’s 2006/07 season opens on September 16 with the company’s spectacular production of Puccini’s Turandot, designed by David Hockney. Sir Andrew Davis will be on the podium, leading an all-star cast that includes Andrea Gruber, Vladimir Galouzine, and Patricia Racette. The season also features a new production and Lyric premiere of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, a new production of R. Strauss’s Salome, a new production of Verdi’s Il trovatore, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. and the Lyric premiere of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. Close to 30,000 season subscribers have already enrolled for the 82-performance season. The budget for 2006/07 is set at $50.2 million. The fundraising goal for 2006/07 is $15.6 million. |
