On behalf of Washington National Opera, we would like to thank all of our current donors for their generosity and commitment through planned gifts. Here are some of their stories.
Back in the mid-1970s when they were a young couple in Manhattan spending many an evening enjoying Met Opera performances from seats in the balcony, Bob Craft told his wife Jamie that he simply had to live within a couple of blocks of an opera house.
Then came the call from Washington for Robert H. Craft, Jr., to take a job at the State Department. It didn't include housing within walking distance of the Kennedy Center. But there was Washington's burgeoning young opera company in residence, and the Crafts - now auto-borne - immediately became subscribers.
Over the next 25 years, the couple joined Washington National Opera's key support groups. Bob is past president of the Board of Trustees. Jamie has headed the Women's Committee. And they have seen just about every one of the more than 180 productions mounted since their arrival, making close friends with staff and artists and also becoming profoundly aware of the financial strains of running an opera company.
When the company mounted its first Legacy Society Weekend, it was natural that the Crafts were front and center. This was not solely on the strength of their distinguished association with the company but also because they had included it in their wills.
"Under Plácido Domingo," Bob Craft told the gathering, "the company has reached new artistic heights. Now that its 50th birthday is approaching,” he continued, “the Board has established The Legacy Society to ensure the company's long-term stability.”
Jamie struck a more personal note, knowing that she spoke for everyone who was attending the weekend: "For all opera companies, it is really critical that they be supported by fans. If this company is to continue - and it really must - it will only happen if the fans make it a priority."
Third generation Oklahoma farm owner and music lover with a degree in applied piano, Ann Shelton had an epiphany when she saw the announcement of the establishment of Washington National Opera's Young Artist Program.
"It just clicked," she said. "I knew what I would do."
The question that had been nagging her and that she now could answer was how she would dispose of her 800-odd acre cotton and wheat farm. Purchased by her grandmother, run then by her mother, and finally left to Ann, the land represented a generous legacy. But to whom?
The news of Washington National Opera's Young Artist program struck a very personal chord. The program includes two places each year for the training of piano accompanists, and Ann herself had long ago dreamed of a career in piano accompaniment.
Ann contacted the Opera to discuss how to make a bequest of the Oklahoma farm to benefit the Young Artists. Ann the deepened her relationship with the Opera when she became the first to make a cash gift for a Charitable Gift Annuity at Washington National Opera, with payments to be deferred until her retirement from her job in Oklahoma City with an FAA contractor dealing with aircraft regulation. In exchange for a tax deduction, Ann will receive quarterly fixed payments for life.
"It couldn't be a better place," she says of her decision to make her major gift to Washington National Opera. "And it couldn't be a better program. Plácido Domingo cares so much about the careers of these young singers."
Donald and Joyce Borrmann point proudly to their Washington National Opera subscriber number: 701.
Now 80 and 78 respectively, they earned this low number in 1976 when they signed up to make Washington National Opera performances a cherished part of their lives. There it has remained for years, while they've lived rich professional lives, he in the Foreign Service, Department of Defense and NSA, she in private industry, and then, on retiring, becoming ski instructors at Snowshoe Silvercreek in western Virginia. All the while, they've watched in fascination as the company matured, exhilarated by the best productions, capturing backstage glimpses through costume studio tours and dress rehearsals, and meeting staff and artists. "Opera is such a miracle," says Joyce. "It takes so much talent to make it work."
And now thousands of subscribers later, the Borrmanns once again have beat the crowd, updating their wills to include Washington National Opera and thus becoming founding members of The Legacy Society. They did so to help ensure the future of the company and also because it was one more way in which they could enjoy "a greater sense of shared commitment" and increase their personal ties to the company they have enjoyed for so long.
Ellen McCauley was once head of Washington National Opera’s school docent program and is now chairman of the Volunteer Advisory Council, the group that organizes volunteers to help in such areas as costumes, transportation, and office work. It's all solid, essential work, right in line with her years of substantive tasks at the Defense Department, where she dealt with science and technical information in the Defense Technical Information Center. She's been such a faithful volunteer that she's earned an honored spot in the program playbill among the handful of volunteers with 100 or more hours of service. And now she'll be listed again, this time as part of the new and highly valued support group, The Legacy Society.
"I made a provision in my will to include Washington National Opera," she said, "because I feel very deeply about the art form and the company."
"No one is going to mount an opera with my bequest," she laughed.
Maybe not. But just like the myriad chores she undertakes, her bequest is part of the monumental group effort of staff, artists, and friends on which the excellence - and the future - of Washington National Opera depends.