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November 13 - December 3, 2016
P A T R O N S A L U T E | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
For Cherryl Thomas, opera has been a familiar
theme throughout her life. “We always had
music in our family, and opera was probably
one of the first musical forms I was familiar
with. As a very young child I remember
opera being played, especially on Sundays. My
mother had a cousin who worked at Orchestra
Hall, and he was always invited for Sunday
supper. He would bring his favorite operas to
play while we were waiting for dinner.”
From there Cherryl
went on to play harp and
piano, she and her siblings
learning the value of musi-
cal skill from their piano-
playing mother and grand-
mother, the latter of whom
also taught lessons. “Both
instruments are in stor-
age now, but I often think
what it would have been
like to continue my studies
in piano and harp. I love
listening to Lyric’s fantastic
orchestra, and sometimes
wonder if I could have been
there.”
Instead, Cherryl has
led an impressive career
in the engineering field,
although she is too modest
to boast about her impres-
sive resume, which includes
several positions in Mayor Richard M. Daley’s
administration such as deputy chief of staff for
infrastructure and building commissioner for
the City of Chicago, before being appointed
Chairman of the U.S. Railroad Retirement
Board by President Bill Clinton in 1998. She
left government work to return to Chicago,
opening her own engineering firm, Ardmore
Associates, in 2003.
With her return to Chicago came her
love of opera and her passion for philanthropy,
both ideologies of which Lyric is now the
grateful recipient. “When you have a busi-
ness in the city of Chicago, it is expected,
and rightly so, that you participate in the
entire community. Philanthropy in Chicago is
second to none. I think people find different
causes that interest them, and to me, opera is
an art form that is worth supporting. It is part
of a complete package that Chicago offers, a
complete package that everyone should value.”
Cherryl personally cosponsored Lyric’s
revival of
Porgy and Bess
in 2014-15, and
Ardmore Associates has been a cosponsor of
Lyric’s Operathon fundraiser on 98.7WFMT
since 2013. Operathon celebrated its 37 th
anniversary last month raising important funds
for Lyric’s community engagement and educa-
tion programming. “Lyric has done a yeoman’s
job of trying to engage the community. Opera
is a sophisticated art form, and you have to
nurture the interest in opera with new gen-
erations. It takes time because opera is not
something that’s so catchy and so immediate
that you understand it or have an appetite
for it. You don’t often hear classical musical
and operatic phrases in advertising anymore,
which is how my generation became familiar
with these genres of music. I think Lyric is
being very patient in developing programs
and engagement with communities and young
people so that they understand opera and real-
ize that it is a lot of fun.”
Cherryl has been a subscriber since
returning to Chicago, and was asked to join
the Board of Directors in 2009. She and her
friends are loyal Monday night opera goers,
meeting for dinner beforehand and chatting
“as only women can do.”
In what is surely a demand-
ing line of work, attend-
ing performances at Lyric
are for Cherryl a welcomed
escape. “It’s very relaxing.
You get a chance to leave
yourself, and in some ways
participate in an art form
that I think will stand the
test of time. When I was
younger, I would try to
think of what I would have
been in that time and place:
would I have been the prin-
cess or the scullery maid or
the temptress? All of those
things fly into your mind
and you try to lose yourself
in the fantasy of it all. I
think it is very important
that we all dream and have
various bits of imagination
in our lives, and opera for me supplies that.”
It may be surprising that Cherryl is able
to suspend her belief, having inspected every
inch of Lyric’s theater as building commis-
sioner in the ‘90s, but it seems to have only
deepened her relationship with the art form.
“All parts of it really fascinate me, all the peo-
ple behind the scenes who make it work. Even
when there isn’t a show going on, there are
people there who are making sure everything is
right and ready. I have a love affair with it, and
I think we can impart that feeling on others,
which is wonderful.”
—
Meaghan Stainback
Cherryl Thomas:
A Lifelong Love Affair with Opera
Cherryl Thomas with Eric Owens at
Porgy and Bess
opening night
ROBERT KUSEL