Opera singer from Chadron to receive major award

The award will be presented Sept. 19 and includes a $1,000 gift. Cynthia Pease Miller, president of the guild, said Sherrill’s “portrayal of Iago was called a benchmark performance and one that will live in all our memories.”

This was the first time Sherrill has portrayed Iago. He said he has been contacted about playing the role again in 2006 in Sacramento.

Sherrill, who received his bachelor’s degree from Chadron State in 1981, has a long list of lead roles that he will be portraying in the next year or so. During October and November he will be in Dallas for Zuniga in “Carmen” while in December he will be in Los Angeles to portray “Figaro” in “The Marriage of Figaro.” He has held the leads in both operas several times previously.

Other upcoming operas he is scheduled to appear in include “The Little Italian Girl in Algiers” in New York, “The Tales of Hoffman” in Dallas and possibly “Die Walkure” in Washington, D.C.

Twice while attending Chadron State, Sherrill was selected the college’s outstanding actor and was well known for his booming baritone-bass voice while singing with the choir and Eaglaires, a select vocal group. He also performed at the Post Playhouse at Fort Robinson and the Black Hills Playhouse at Custer State Park while in college.

After graduating from CSC, Sherrill spent a year doing graduate work and performing at the University of South Dakota. In the summer of 1983, he was the youngest of 38 selected to sing with the Sante Fe Opera and was chosen for two leads. More than 900 auditioned. Later that year, his career received a major boost when he was selected to perform with the Lyric Opera, Chicago’s most prominent.

After he received the opportunity in Chicago, his Chadron State vocal instructor, the late Dr. Alfred Blinde, said, “If things keep going right for Don, we’ll hear a lot about him in the future.”

Those words certainly have come true. Within a decade, Sherrill had performed in 24 foreign countries as well as nearly every major concert hall in the United States. He once received an eight-minute standing ovation in Mexico City. During the past decade, Sherrill has seldom auditioned, filling his schedule through arrangements made by his agent.

Sherrill’s wife, Paula, is a former opera singer, but is now attending law school in San Francisco, The couple moved from New York City to Oakland two years ago.

Sherrill is the brother of Theresa Landreth of Chadron.