John Denver. Judy Collins. Glenn Miller. Tommy Bolin. Central City Opera.

Wait … what?

The Colorado Music Hall of Fame announced today that the famed, 92-year-old opera company located 40 miles west of Denver will be inducted into Colorado’s coolest musical playground, which was founded by rock promoter Chuck Morris 11 years ago and is permanently housed at Red Rocks.

This is not only the Hall’s first opera-themed induction, it is the first in a series of what it is calling “destination” inductions. That means “The Hall” plans to continue expanding its scope by moving around the state conducting in-person induction ceremonies.

The opera induction will take place in Central City on Saturday, June 29, with the entire 2024 induction class part of the opera theme. Collectively, the 2024 class will be called “Opera in the High Country.” But it will include individual Hall of Fame designations for opera singers Cynthia Lawrence and former pro football player Keith Miller, as well as John Moriarty, a former Central City Opera conductor and artistic director who died in 2022. Moriarty created the company’s Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program in 1978, which is considered a national model for the professional development of young singers.

The induction party will be held in conjunction with the opening night of next summer’s “The Pirates of Penzance.“

The goal, according to the Hall of Fame’s Karen Radman, is “to recognize the important contributions that opera has made in music, while (also) expanding to a new musical genre for our inductees.”

Central City Mayor Jeremy Fey called the induction a great honor for the town. “June 29 will be a landmark day celebrating both the Opera’s venerable history and Central City’s ongoing revitalization,” he said.

Lawrence, a soprano who graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, currently serves as the Endowed Chair for Voice and Opera at the University of Kentucky School of Music.

Miller, who hails from the tiny town of Ovid (population 261), was a star football player at CU Boulder before knocking around the NFL for five seasons. He went on to perform as a principal artist for the Metropolitan Opera for 18 years and was opera director at the Crested Butte Music Festival for six years.

Central City Opera, which seems to be coming out of several years of administrative and labor turmoil, is now the nation’s fifth-oldest opera company.