Chautauqua Dedicates Jane A. Gross Opera Center

By Sarah Jaquay

Jane A. GrossThe Jane A. Gross Opera Center will be dedicated at 12:30p.m. today on the site of the former Chautauqua Central High School. Gross gave the Institution the funds to renovate the gymnasium into coaching studios, rehearsal space and new restrooms. Her gift also air conditioned the Opera's office building and purchased four new pianos. The remainder of the funds will be used in the future to create more soundproofed space and a storage area in the office building.

Gross is a lifelong Manhattanite whose Chatham College roommate, Susan Swartz, introduced her to Chautauqua in 1979. "I'm still kicking myself it took me five more years to get here," Gross said. She started coming in August of 1984 and her initial visit happened to coincide with the late Chautauqua President Daniel Bratton's first week. Gross said she fell in love with Chautauqua "because not every place is a great place to go alone…Chautauqua is fabulous if you're single because it's very friendly and everyone is on the same schedule-Everyone wants dinner at 6 p.m., so you've got lots of company."

That era also coincided with Gross's burgeoning interest in opera. "In 1985, my friend Marlena Van Meter, asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and we went to see Turandot at the Met. There was a Bulgarian soprano and a Russian tenor, who kept trying to upstage each other…to the point where he almost dislodged her wig. It was a riot-- high slapstick," Gross said. She could barely keep a straight face and her friend knew right away that Gross "got it" and would be a lifelong opera lover.

Gross comes by her charitable tendencies honestly. Her father, Alfred Gross, was a developer who highly valued education and supporting young peoples' careers. "My father chose to have money available for charitable work all his life. He was on the board of Horace Mann School and New York Law School and supported Mt. Sinai School of Medicine," Gross said. A physical manifestation of Alfred's charitable work is the Alfred Gross Theatre at the Horace Mann School, which was dedicated just a few years ago in Riverdale.
Alfred passed that value on to his two children, Peter and Jane. Peter is still on the board of Horace Mann, a renowned independent day school, and the board of the Mannes School of Music. "He's much more of a violin and piano person; I'm more about voice," Gross said.

Gross's interest in music also has roots that go back several generations. Her paternal grandmother, "Grandma Gross" was an opera lover and had a cousin in Budapest who was an opera singer. Her maternal great grandmother used to take her mother, Florence, to the "Old Met," just after WWI. "Florence, gangly little girl that she was, really wanted to be a ballet dancer in the Met Opera company. That was not to be her future, but that was her fantasy. She knew all of the lyrics to Gilbert and Sullivan songs the way I knew all the lyrics to Rodgers & Hammerstein songs," Gross said.

Gross has been a Chautauqua "Opera Mom" for about seven years and has taken her devotion to the members of the Chautauqua Young Artists Program to a global level. She goes to see them perform during the off-season. "This past year I went to see Lea Woods Friedman in Hawaii, Josh Hopkins and Jenn(Jennifer) Root in Houston and Hugh Russell in Boston. It's more fun to see productions when you know the people in them," said Gross. She also provides lodging for Young Artists auditioning and/or performing in New York City on a first-come, first-served basis. When asked if she wanted this fact published, she responded, "I tell all the kids this every year. It's fun, and I love it."

Gross described the cascade of events that led to her donation as starting with a meal on the grounds. "Dottie Randall, Joe Colaneri and I were at Sadie J's talking about the hated 'pod,'" Gross said. (The pod is a pre-fabricated area built with soundproof baffling that can be set up freestanding in a space. They were talking about a pod in the Chautauqua Opera office building.) They discussed a variety of options including updating the pods, which Colaneri said was not worth it. Randall then mentioned the gymnasium as a possibility for new practice areas, and Gross suggested if someone would go out and get the bid specifications and pricing, she would consider funding the project. "When Jay (Lesenger, artistic/general director of the Opera) heard about it, he said, 'Jane, why don't you just fix up the whole Opera Center and put your name on it?'" Gross said.

Gross thought more about the Opera Center idea and had been "looking for a (philanthropic) project" for several years since her mother passed away. Then she went to see Tom Becker, president of Chautauqua Institution, and saw some plans for renovating the gymnasium that dated back to 2002. It was this plan, updated and expanded, that yielded "five new rehearsal spaces that are bright, clean, well-lit and flexible enough for individual coaching, choral rehearsal or for the whole company to rehearse together on the gymnasium floor," Gross said.

She is very proud of the fact that Institution employees performed the work to establish the Jane A. Gross Opera Center as opposed to outside contractors. "We got tremendous bang for the buck because the Institution used its own people and gave them over-the-winter work, instead of having to lay them off. That turned into a win-win situation. It gave us excellent work at a good price…Charlie Heinz's crew were the first people to take me through when I returned in mid-June," said Gross. She wants people who like the new facility to compliment the crew on their good work, "because a lot of these employees went to that high school, and they are justifiably proud of what they've done," Gross said. Lesenger is also delighted with the result and how quickly the crew worked. "The new space unifies the company in a way that takes us to the next level. There are other companies with much higher profile and budgets that don't have as complete rehearsal facilities as these," he said.

Gross ended the interview by saying, "Being with the (Chautauqua) Opera company and staff is the best part of my year. I'm really happy to have the opportunity to do something that will be meaningful in the lives of people I know and love so much." Clearly a highlight of Chautauqua Opera company's calendar is when fans like Jane A. Gross return to the grounds.