{
PHILANTHROPY
Time to
Take a Bow
Pasadena residents Carol and Warner Henry reflect on more than 20 years of behind-the-scenes leadership in the ongoing success of LA Opera BY JENINE BAINES ~ PHOTOS BY STE VE COHN
Warner and Carol Henry
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t’s a gift any opera buff would envy: answering the phone to hear world-renowned tenor Placido Domingo sing “Happy Birthday.” “My husband, Warner, still keeps it on his voice mail,” says arts philanthropist Carol Henry, president of the board of directors of Los Angeles Opera. But it takes more than a seat on the LA Opera board to inspire an acclaimed artist like Domingo to deliver a singing birthday-gram. Ever since the company’s founding 21 years ago, the Pasadena couple has also demonstrated dedication, service and a willingness to ride like a Wagnerian Valkyrie to the company’s rescue in times of need. “It is hard to imagine what the history of LA Opera would have been like without Carol and Warner Henry,” says Domingo, the Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, who has known the Henrys since LA Opera’s inception. “They have been absolutely essential to the company’s ongoing success.” Fellow board member Rebecca Bowne says that success can be
16 ~ SEPTEMBER 2007 ~ ARROYO
linked directly to the couple’s leadership skills. “Each is particularly astute when it comes to providing strategic and management direction for the company,” says Bowne, a past president of the Opera League of Los Angeles, the primary volunteer support group for LA Opera. Observers point to the couple’s acumen in helping to bring in Placido Domingo as general director in 2003, after the retirement of the founding general director, Peter Hemmings. “That decision has been a most important factor in bringing LA Opera to its status today,” says Warner Henry, the board’s vice chairman and chairman of its marketing committee. “We’ve become one of the top five national opera companies budget-wise and artistically.” Carol Henry is quick to note, however, that much of the credit goes to teamwork by longtime board members like board Chairman and CEO Marc I. Stern. “We are a working board, with a deep commitment to the art form and to the community,” she says. “No one is there merely to enhance their social resume.” —Continued on page 18