Piedmont Opera’s C. Guy Rudisill III Is among Four Recipents of Opera America’s 2009 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award
 
January 26, 2009: America’s national service organization for opera, Opera America, has recognized the many contribtions of Piedmont Opera’s C. Guy Rudisill III, who has seved as President of the Board, a member of Piedmont Opera’s Major Gifts Committee, and, in effect, acting General Manager. Rudisill is one of four recipients of the award this year. The complete Opera American press release follows below.
 
OPERA AMERICA ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF THE 2009 NATIONAL OPERA TRUSTEE RECOGNITION AWARD
 
New York, NY — OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, is proud to announce the 2009 recipients of the National Opera Trustee Recognition Award. In its second year, this award honors trustees of U.S. opera companies for exemplary leadership, generosity and audience building efforts on behalf of their respective opera companies.
 
The 2009 National Opera Trustee Recognition honorees are Mr. John T. Cody, Jr. of The Dallas Opera, Mr. Richard Holland of Opera Omaha, Mrs. Beth Ingram of Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Mr. C. Guy Rudisill, III of Piedmont Opera.
 
OPERA America is committed to recognizing strong trustee leaders, understanding the pivotal role they play in the success of opera companies and the vitality of the communities they serve. In acknowledging and celebrating the dedication of board members at the national level, the National Opera Trustee Recognition Program seeks to strengthen the relationships between opera companies and their trustees and to inspire exemplary service to opera companies across the United States.
 
“Presenting consistently high-quality opera requires a dedicated staff guided and supported by a strong board,” stated Marc A. Scorca, president & CEO of OPERA America. “The value of dedicated board members who provide passion, vision and generous support cannot be overstated. We are pleased to be joined by Bank of America in recognizing the achievements of these trustees.”
 
“Bank of America is a leading supporter of the arts and believes that these institutions are critical to ensuring the cultural and economic vitality of our communities,’” said Keith Banks, head of Bank of America Global Private Client, Institutional and Investment Management. “We are pleased to sponsor this noble initiative as the trustees play an important role in developing their local opera company as cultural pillars in their community.”
Each year, OPERA America member companies are invited to nominate one of their trustees for this award. A single honoree from each of the four OPERA America budget levels is chosen by an adjudication committee through a competitive selection process.
 
The honorees represent a significant range of accomplishments, generosity and a deep commitment to promoting opera in their communities. The following profiles illustrate just a few examples of the dedication of these trustees.
 
After fourteen seasons with The Dallas Opera, John Cody held the top administrative position for a year while the company searched for its new general director. He has resumed the position in the wake of the brief tenure of George Steel. Mr. Cody is the retired President and COO of J.C. Penney with more than 35 years of executive experience. He joined the Board of Directors of The Dallas Opera in 1993 and has served on the Development, Finance and Marketing committees, as well as on the Board of The Dallas Opera Foundation. Mr. Cody became President of the company in June 2004 and guided a two-year project to develop a strategic positioning statement and roadmap designed to take The Dallas Opera through its historic move into the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 2006-2008 and as Interim General Director from June through September 2008. He resumed the position of Interim General Director as of January, 2009.
 
Native Omahan and retired advertising executive Richard Holland has been a tireless advocate of Opera Omaha. Shortly after its 1958 founding, Mr. Holland joined other community leaders in helping them grow from a community enterprise to a budding professional regional company. He served as Board President from 1966 to 1970 and, over the past 40 years, has remained a constant supporter, both in a governance capacity and as a donor. In his forward for the book Opera Omaha: The First Fifty Years, Mr. Holland wrote “…we believe we have helped make Omaha a better place to live and work.” While maintaining and expanding his leadership giving to Opera Omaha, Mr. Holland is a major supporter of many social service organizations. He called on the Peter Kiewit Foundation to co-commission a study on the economic impact of performing arts in Omaha, which clearly proved the high value these groups bring to the region.
 
Beth Ingram is an enthusiastic promoter and generous patron of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. As a 42-year member of the Board of Directors, she has held the officer positions of secretary, treasurer, vice-president, president, vice-chairman and chairman. She was the first woman president on the Lyric Opera Board and continued in her leading role by serving on the Executive Committee for the majority of those years. Mrs. Ingram was the lead donor and honorary chairman for the Company’s 2003 Endowment Campaign that raised $11.5 million to establish a fund to enhance the artistic quality of productions and twice has served as honorary chairman for the Company’s major fund raising event, the Lyric Opera Ball. The Golden Anniversary Ball held last season raised a record-breaking $1.4 million for the Company and ensured adequate funding for their ambitious 50th Anniversary Season.
 
C. Guy Rudisill III has been involved with Piedmont Opera for more than ten years, serving as President of the Board from 2000 to 2002. A member of Piedmont Opera’s Major Gifts Committee, Mr. Rudisill is highly involved with fundraising for the company and last year helped raise $200,000 over and above the company’s budget. For a period of time during his tenure as Board President, Piedmont Opera was without a General Manager. Until a successor could be identified, Mr. Rudisill assumed many of the General Manager’s duties. Mr. Rudisill also serves on the Advocacy Committee of the local Arts Council and takes an active role in reminding the local, state and national elected officials of the importance of the arts to the community, state and nation.

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40 Years of Musical Leadership: North Carolina Symphony Principal Clarinet Announces Retirement
 
January 7, 2008, Raleigh, NC: Jimmy Gilmore, the North Carolina Symphony’s highly-regarded, long-time Principal Clarinet will retire at the end of this season after forty years with the orchestra. Says Music Director Grant Llewellyn, “Critical to any successful orchestra is the presence of experienced musicians who can shape the very character of the group by their playing and by the manner in which they approach their playing. Jimmy Gilmore has been fundamental in crafting the orchestra that we all enjoy today.”
 
Gilmore, who is the longest-tenured member of the Symphony, served under four of the five Symphony Music Directors, winning his position after auditioning for Dr. Benjamin Swalin in a Carnegie Hall rehearsal studio in the spring of 1969. “Dr. Swalin gave me a thorough hearing,” he remembers. “He made me play the first movement of the Mozart Concerto and the entire first clarinet part to Strauss’s “Don Juan.” I was offered the Principal Clarinet position several weeks later, and came to North Carolina in the fall of 1969 after completing my tour of duty with the U.S. Army.”
Gilmore quickly established himself in a leadership role. “I immediately got into trouble,” he smiles, “for founding the first Orchestra Committee. In 1970, we gained player participation in contract negotiations for the first time in the Symphony’s history.” As chairman of the Orchestra Committee for five straight years during hard times in the early 1990s, he helped lead the reorganization of the Symphony and raised money for the orchestra. In 1999, he became President of Local #500 of the American Federation of Musicians, an organization that has grown from 130 to 230 members in the past nine years. He has been a member of the Orchestra Committee several times in the last eight years.
 
Gilmore also helped put the North Carolina Symphony on the map artistically by representing the organization as Principal Clarinet of the World Symphony Orchestra, a ensemble comprised of musicians from all over the world and conducted by Arthur Fiedler. He has been a soloist with the Symphony on numerous occasions during his tenure, performing concertos by Mozart, Stamitz, Weber, Copland and Arnold, as well as Debussy’s Rhapsodie, Baermann’s Adagio and Weber’s Concertino.
 
Other performances that stand out for Gilmore were concerts with Elly Ameling, Alicia De Laroccha, Henryk Szyeryng, Joseph Silverstein, Pinchas Zuckerman, Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma. “I would also have to include the experience of performing a Mozart aria at the front of the stage with Frederica Von Stade, and the many performances we did with André Watts over the years,” says Gilmore. “These had special meaning to me because I first performed with André when he was nineteen years old and I was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic.”
 
Gilmore’s 40-year perspective as a member of the North Carolina Symphony makes him uniquely qualified to note just how far the orchestra has come since 1969, growing from an expense budget of $411,269 in FY1969 to a budget of over $14 million FY 2009, four decades later. This tremendous growth in both artistic quality and programming includes Summerfest, for which he wrote the first grant proposal in 1983. The summer outdoor concert series was approved by the Board the next year and this popular outdoor series debuted at Meredith College in 1984. “This was a musicians’ project,” Gilmore says. “administered by me, [assistant principal clarinet] Mike Cyzewski and [associate principal bass] Bob Anderson.” Summerfest moved to Cary’s Regency Park in 1986 and is one of the Symphony’s most successful and long-running series.
 
Also a published writer, Gilmore’s articles have appeared in Our State magazine, [t]he Spectator, ClariNetwork and the Symphony’s magazine, Opus. In 1989, his one-act play, The Picture Album, won second prize in the Wachovia Playwrights Competition, a statewide contest. He is currently working on a book about musical life, based in part on his experiences with the North Carolina Symphony.
 
“Jimmy’s leadership by example has galvanized the ensemble into a professionalism and positive work ethic that is immediately apparent to visiting artists and was something that immediately impressed me from my very first rehearsal,” says Llewellyn. “He has always been a sage voice of reason and advice in the often hurlyburly world of the symphony and I personally owe him a debt of gratitude for the wisdom and kindness he has shown me over my tenure here.”
 
Upon his retirement on July 1, Gilmore will join the administrative staff as Senior Advisor, and will work with president and CEO David Chambless Worters on education and outreach programs, lobbying and advocacy, documenting Symphony history, writing, speaking, and serving as goodwill ambassador. “After forty fabulous seasons as Principal Clarinet,” says Gilmore, “I am happy to be accepting this new position. I look forward to exploring new ways to help insure the Orchestra’s success.”
 
Worters says, “Jimmy has not only been a valued member of the orchestra for forty years, but has been a valued leader on and off the stage. I’m delighted for him to take on several new roles as a member of the staff. The Symphony will benefit greatly from all he has to offer.”
 
Anderson, a 38-year colleague of Gilmore’s also offers his best wishes. “Jimmy’s forty years of musical leadership will be missed by his colleagues on stage and audiences across the state. We can’t thank him enough for all the fine performances he has given. Looking ahead to his new role, his experience as the musicians’ representative, concert producer, and President of the Professional Musicians Association, will make him a great asset to the organization in many new ways. We all offer our congratulations to Jimmy for an unparalleled career with our orchestra.”
 
During the past seventeen years, Gilmore has also performed with his wife, Symphony Associate Principal Cello Elizabeth Beilman, in Aurora Musicalis, the chamber music ensemble they founded together. “We have performed extensively on major series in this area,” Gilmore says, “and recorded Echoes of America, composed for our group by Robert Ward and commissioned by the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild, on Albany Records.” The recording received great critical acclaim in the international publication Fanfare.
 
A native of Dallas, Texas, Gilmore is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of Stanley Hasty. He received his Master of Science degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Leon Russianoff.
 
Before joining the North Carolina Symphony, Gilmore performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, the United Nations World Symphony and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. He currently serves on the music faculties of Duke University and Meredith College, where he conducted the Meredith Wind Ensemble. He also performed with the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro for ten years, 1972-82.
Auditions for a new Principal Clarinet position will take place this coming June.
 
Reprinted from a press release issued by the NC Symphony on 1/7/09.

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