Eva and Marc Stern have been involved in nearly every aspect of LA Opera over many years.
Chairman of the company’s board of directors from 2002 to 2021, and now serving as Honorary Chairman, Marc Stern has been the driving force in bringing many of the world’s most influential artists to Los Angeles. Through their transformational giving, the Sterns have championed more than 15 ambitious projects including the 2010 Ring cycle, numerous new productions, and DVD releases of La Traviata and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Through the Eva and Marc Stern Principal Artists Fund, which they established in 2017, they have underwritten the performances of Plácido Domingo in Nabucco, Don Carlo and his 50th Anniversary Concert, Susan Graham in Hansel and Gretel and St. Matthew Passion, and Audra McDonald in her 2018 concert with the LA Opera Orchestra. In recognition of their extraordinary longtime involvement and support of LA Opera and The Music Center, the Eva and Marc Stern Grand Hall in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was named in their honor in 2010.
Marc Stern is Chairman of The TCW Group, Inc., a Los Angeles-based asset management firm. He was elected to LA Opera’s board in 1992 and is involved in numerous other philanthropic activities including serving on the boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee and the California Institute of Technology. Mr. Stern was formerly Vice-Chair of The Salk Institute and was Founding Chairman of both the Mayor’s Fund Los Angeles and of The President’s Council of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a minority owner of both the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Eva Stern is a clinical social worker and philanthropist, supporting Southern California youth through the combination of education and the arts. A board member of the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, in 2006 she led the effort to establish the Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School, an Alliance public charter high school. Inspired by her work with the high school, she established AMP, a special mentoring program for first-year college students. She also serves on the President’s Council at California State University, Los Angeles, on the board of The Blue Ribbon, and is a past chair of InsideOUT Writers, a creative writing program for youth in juvenile hall.
