Paul Eklund, a local businessman and Boulder resident, recently donated a large sum of money to CU’s opera program in a push to revive an appreciation of the arts. In honor of the donation, CU renamed the program the Eklund Family Opera Program. The donation, paired with supplementary funds from the university, totaled $2 million.
Eklund grew up in San Diego, where his mother took him to opera shows at the Starlight Theatre. This sparked his interest in the arts, and after attending an opera performance at CU, he decided to donate to the program.
“Mr. Eklund has sort of become a member of our opera family here,” said Leigh Holman, the director of the CU opera. “He’s a very successful business man, and that is a public statement that says, ‘The arts are important and I value them.’”
CU’s opera program, part of the university’s voice department, has three productions every year, with two of the shows showcased in Macky Auditorium.
With Eklund’s donation, Holman said the CU opera program can continue to exist despite a decrease in both state funding and the funding of the arts as a whole, reinforcing an acceptance of the arts as part of higher education.
“The psychological support of saying that the arts are important in general lets students know it’s important, and it’s not just artists that feel that way,” Holman said. “It’s wonderful to share something with people all in the same room, experiencing the same event at the same time. It brings people together, and reminds us of our humanity.”
Kevin McKenzie, a junior majoring in music, said he hopes the donation will encourage more people to attend the opera shows. For their October production of “Pirates of Penzance,” he said more people were in attendance than any other show in the past 10 years.
“I believe that with more attention being brought to CU’s already prestigious opera program, more students will consider attending CU’s music school,” McKenzie said. “With Paul Eklund’s generous $2 million donation, I believe CU Opera performances will be even better than they are now. With already incredible costumes and sets, I can only see them getting better and better.”
The program has won awards in the National Opera Association Collegiate Scenes competition in three of its last four seasons. Its next production, “Cosi dan Tutte,” will premiere March 13, 2015.
“We do some pretty exciting things already,” Holman said. “It’s not that we need to spend a lot of money on technology or ‘upping’ the artistic values that much, but to be able to continue it is the thing, to keep it in motion. In order to keep it going every year we would have to spend a lot of time doing a lot of fundraising, and then you never know each year if you’re going to make enough.”
More information on the Eklund Family Opera Program, including upcoming performances, is available through the College of Music’s website.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marine Martin at Marine.martin@colorado.edu.
