Born: 1914 (New Castle, PA)

Died: 2009 (Santa Barbara, California)

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Lura Stover (Dolas), soprano, was a winner of the 1941 Walter W. Naumburg Competition. Also winning that year were the pianist William Kapell and violinist Robert Mann. She made her NY debut in Town Hall, New York, NY on January 26, 1942, establishing her as a promising American soprano of that era.

Lura Stover Dolas left Pennsylvania when she was awarded a full scholarship to Juilliard where she was invited to study piano before changing her focus to voice in her second year.

In March of 1943, she performed the role of the Countess in the Nine O'Clock Opera Company's production of The Marriage of Figaro in Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall sharing the stage with Helen Van Moon as Susanna and Vera Weiki as Cherubino. In the 1940's she also performed major soprano roles in Boston Opera's seasons including in Aida. She also performed with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ysaye.

In subsequent years, she soloed on numerous recordings and soloed live each week on the NBC and ABC radio stations.

In 1955 Mrs. Dolas moved with her husband, Michael Dolas, and their two young children to Santa Barbara, California. In Santa Barbara, Mrs. Dolas devoted herself to teaching - a career that spanned five decades. Her students sang professionally in Europe and the United States including on Broadway.

She was a President of the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Youth Theater and established the Young Artist's Foundation in Santa Barbara to launch the careers of Santa Barbara's exceptional young musicians. She served on the California Arts Council and was responsible for the establishment of the Santa Barbara City Club Prize at the University of California, Santa Barbara which was awarded each year to four women graduates with the highest academic achievements in Politcal Science or a related field.

She was named Santa Barbara's Woman of the Year in 1985.

When Mrs. Dolas passed away at the age on ninety-five, the Santa Barbara High School choir came to sing in her honor. Hundreds of people attended - people she had taught over the decades or whose lives she had otherwise touched.

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Excerpt from The New York Times review, January 27, 1942

Lura Stover, Singer, Gives Debut Recital

Soprano, a Naumburg Award Winner, Heard in Town Hall

"The Walter W. Naumburg Musical Foundation, which makes annual awards to young musicians in the form of New York debut recitals, has a high average in picking its winners. Lura Stover, who appeared in Town Hall yesterday, is a Naumburg winner who helps bear out this contention. She is a soprano of poised talent, and her knowledge and taste bespeak more experience than most newcommers possess.

She is a soprano of poised talent, and her knowledge and taste bespeak more experience than most newcomers possess...voice is wide in range. The upper tones are full and free, like a lyric soprano's, the lower tones are darkly colored, like a mezzo-soprano voice...the young soprano has uncommon perception and, in addition, she has been prepared with comprehension. Thus she could range over a fine and varied program, beginning with Elizabethan songs and moving through Wolf, other Lieder, Debussy and a final American group with a command of different styles and epochs. She could be light and graceful, intense and poetic, colorful and humorous.. Miss Stover has the voice and intelligence to go places." H. T.

Click to Listen | Handel: Glory to God in the Highest.

Click to Listen | Bach: Bleed and Break Aria.

Click to Listen | Handel: I Know My Redeemer Liveth

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