With a voice as clear and true as hers, soprano Cynthia Lawrence probably would have made it even if she hadn’t won the Denver Lyric Opera Guild’s Competition for Colorado Singers 20 years ago.
But last Saturday, when she sang at a dinner celebrating the competition’s 25th year, Lawrence graciously credited the guild for launching a career that enabled her to sing with such legends as Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo and to perform in the world’s top opera houses.
Her talent so impressed Pavarotti that he invited her to share the stage with him in a remarkable 70-plus concerts; after his death, Pavarotti’s widow, Nicoletta Mantovani Pavarotti, made sure Lawrence was one of the 20 to speak at a memorial last October in Petra, Jordan.
Without the guild, “singers like me would never get to the Met, or La Scala or Royal Albert Hall,” Lawrence said. “And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Zoraide Noya Scordo, who organized the competition the year Lawrence won, chaired the celebratory dinner, held at Lakewood Country Club. Terry Biddinger, president the year Lawrence won, was among the guests.
The current president, Carole Cruson, proudly noted that 2009 is shaping up as “a particularly fine year for our singers,” highlighted by the fact that 2008 winner Annamarie Zmolek, a graduate student at Rice University, will be an apprentice artist for the Central City Opera’s upcoming Summer Festival. That program also has launched numerous careers, including that of superstar Denyce Graves.Chris and Dr. James Shore were there with Judy and Dr. Larry Faulkner, who were here on business for the American Psychiatric Association.
Others dining at tables decorated with red roses and silver ribbons: the 2009 competition chair, Phyllis Wicklund, and her husband, Rod; Marcia Hoehler, whose mother founded the guild, and her husband, Richard; Barbara and Kevin Hughes; Caterina and Mike DePalma; Yonnie and George Dikeou; Helen Santilli and Dr. Lyn Barber; Deanna Leino; Carolyn and Winston Hill; Barbara and Jim Sileo; Helen Martz; Lee and Jim White; Gloria and Guy Andrus; Sherry and Frank Sargent; Jeanette and Larry Thrower; Lois Schweigert; Mary Hayes; Dorothy Pearson and Al Alioto; Mary and Tom Conroy; Glo Hess; Maradithand Rusty Wilkins; Inez Wilson; Christy Pickett; and Margie Kinslow.And there’s more
The second Hearts of All Ages, a family-oriented fundraiser for the University of Colorado Hospital divisions of neonatal intensive care and geriatric medicine, begins at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at Invesco Field. Peter and Marilyn Coors are chairing it with Ernie Blake and Sharon Magness Blake; there’ll be clowns and face-painters for the kids, along with food by Epicurean Catering. Call 720-848-7818. . . . Patrons of Saturday Night Alive 2009 are to be thanked at a Feb. 17 cocktail soiree at the Westin Tabor Center. The main event is March 7 in the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom. Chairing couples are Ralph and Anne Klomp and Jim and Patty Kleckner, with Stan and Sarah Sena in charge of the auction. It’s a benefit for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased by calling Christopher Goetz, 303-446-4815.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
