In Mozart’s great comic opera The Marriage of Figaro, cases of mistaken identity abound. But at a dinner preceding Piedmont Opera’s staging of the classic at High Point Theatre, there’s no question about the identity of the grande dame making her way to a table at the very center of the room. A constellation of friends and arts patrons begins to orbit around her. People grasp hands in greeting. They exchange cheek-to-cheek hugs. They whisper short confidences, punctuated with laughter. Word spreads: Phyllis Dunning is in the house.

Phyllis Dunning raising her glass to the arts along with Jonathan Nicolas and Katie Hall after a performance. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Although her musical tastes may lean to the classical, make no mistake: Dunning is a rock star. She attended the first performance of what was to become the Winston-Salem Symphony in 1947 at age 13. That night, she was thrilled to see her piano teacher in the spotlight as the featured soloist. Since then, the 91-year-old dynamo has been a fixture at operas, symphonies, ballets, plays, musicals, and art galleries — here in North Carolina and around the world.

“Her impact on our company has been great,” says Connie Quinn, Piedmont Opera’s executive director. “But her impact on our arts community and the individuals within it has been nothing short of miraculous.”

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Growing up as the oldest of five children in Winston-Salem, Dunning recalls that her parents were “wonderfully supportive,” which included “making sure that I had piano lessons.” The piano didn’t take. Nor did the violin. When she was in high school, her music teacher encouraged her to attend Salem College to study voice. “Of course, I can’t sing either,” she says with a laugh, “but those lessons made me love it all.”

Ultimately, she found professional fulfillment as an educator, inspired by her high school English teacher Louise Newman. The excitement of teaching kept Dunning roaming up and down the aisles of a classroom. Even if she had wanted to sit, she couldn’t. To this day, the chairs in her home are heaped with books, magazines, and periodicals. So much so that visitors must search for a place to perch. Just about every available surface contains a tower of neatly stacked books.

Stacks of books, awards, and photos of Dunning’s life with her beloved late husband, Ellis, adorn the rooms of her home. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

In all, Dunning taught at five different schools in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. She was part of a pioneering group of educators in the city who took positions at predominantly Black schools the year before busing began and schools were completely integrated in 1971. For some, it was a time of anxiety and uncertainty. For Dunning, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. “I was teaching at such an exciting time,” she says. “I had amazing students. It was wonderful.”

As an unknown educator in an all-Black high school, Dunning wondered how she was going to connect with her students and their parents. PTAs weren’t big in high schools, she says, so instead of going to her own church on Sundays, she attended services at different houses of worship in East Winston each week. On Monday mornings, students who’d seen her at their church the previous day, who’d watched her interact with their parents, would wave to her in the halls and stop by to say hello. She pauses at the memory. “That made all the difference,” she says.

Dunning also did her best to instill her love of the arts in her students. She and her husband, Ellis, ferried carloads of kids to countless musicals, plays, and symphonies. She enticed participation by offering extra credit and by understanding what would appeal to teens. She won over skeptical football players by taking them to see Guys and Dolls at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. “The lead was Berlinda Tolbert,” Dunning says. “All of my boys fell in love with Berlinda.” Tolbert went on to national fame, starring in a hit sitcom of the ’70s and ’80s, The Jeffersons.

Dunning has prepared countless former students — including singer, songwriter, and pianist Ben Folds — for successful careers in the arts. photograph by Jeff Hahne/Getty Images

Dunning’s devotion to her students extended well beyond nights and weekends. For more than 30 years, she chaperoned young adults across Europe during summer breaks, giving them eye-opening introductions to art, history, and culture. Many of her students went on to great success, including lighting designer Howell Binkley (who won Tony Awards for Jersey Boys and Hamilton), singer-songwriter Ben Folds, and a who’s who of novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters.

“I was a pretty naughty kid,” Folds recalls of his high school years. If the rambunctious pianist wasn’t getting tossed out of his classes, he was making unorthodox exits on his own — like crawling out of windows. But Dunning held his interest. Her instinct for understanding the gifts of each individual student and how they could use those talents helped Folds. She drew him into poetry by suggesting that he write music to a work by Keats. To this day, Folds says he can still recite the poem.

In 2019, the singer returned to Winston-Salem for a hometown performance. Dunning was in the audience. “Even my friends and family are over coming to my shows,” Folds says. “But she still shows up for me. She’s such a bright light.”

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In 1993, Dunning’s “charming, delightful” husband, Ellis, died. Shortly thereafter, she retired from teaching — but not from school. “I made a list of things to do, and No. 1 was to take the docent course at Reynolda House,” she says. For the next 30 years, she greeted patrons, led tours, and introduced visitors to the museum’s collection of American art.

But Dunning’s responsibilities at Reynolda House Museum of American Art barely put a dent in her capacity for giving. She served in just about every volunteer role at Piedmont Opera, 40+ Stage Company, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, and Salem College. Her volunteer stint with the Winston-Salem Symphony, where her passion for the performing arts was first sparked, has stretched across 70 years. From serving on boards to stuffing envelopes to handing out programs to feeding cast members after rehearsals, there’s no job too small or humbling for Dunning, who tackles every task with enthusiasm and style.

Another treasured photo placed lovingly among Dunning’s book collection shows her with Atlanta transplants Frank Benedetti (left) and Gary Trowbridge. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Frank Benedetti and Gary Trowbridge met her after they moved to Winston-Salem from Atlanta in 1993. As fortune would have it, the couple wound up next to Dunning at the first Winston-Salem Symphony performance they attended. “We sat down and said ‘hello,’ and it was like she had always known us,” Trowbridge says. “She got us involved in the symphony, the opera, the School of the Arts, and Reynolda House.”

Dunning has served as a one-person welcome wagon for countless other newcomers to Winston-Salem who love the arts as much as Benedetti and Trowbridge do. “When Phyllis celebrated her 90th birthday, half the town showed up,” Trowbridge says. “She’s just ‘Miss Winston-Salem.’ If you go to a party and she’s not there, it’s a dud.”

Her prowess at raising money for causes showed up on an invitation that Trowbridge received for a School of the Arts fundraising luncheon. “She said, ‘It’s free to get in, but it costs a thousand dollars to get out,’” he recalls with a laugh. “We had money before we met Phyllis. Now we’re broke.” He pauses. “But we’re happy!” Turning serious, he adds, “Phyllis opened doors for us that we never could have opened on our own.”

“So much of me is a result of the time and love and care that Phyllis has invested in our relationship.”

Dunning’s role as a creative conduit is legendary. “She’s a connector through and through,” says Katie Hall, chief marketing officer and vice president of development for the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County. “We might be sitting at a bar, and she will walk over to a stranger and introduce herself.”

Dunning recently met a young engineer who had just moved to Winston-Salem. When she learned that he’d never attended a symphony concert, she arranged a ticket for an upcoming performance of Holst’s The Planets. Naturally, the story ended just the way she hoped it would. “Oh my God, that was fabulous,” the engineer raved when he spotted Dunning in the lobby after the show. The next day, he bought season tickets.

For Dunning, inspiring younger generations of arts enthusiasts is as natural as breathing. In 2010, Hall was in her first year at Salem College when she met Dunning, who was serving on the school’s board of visitors. “That was the beginning of the rest of our lives,” Hall says. “She took me to my first symphony concert. And my second and third and fourth. She made getting involved in the symphony and opera easy.”

Dunning has taken numerous young arts lovers under her wing, including Katie Hall (left) of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh; Stacey Van Berkel

Over the past 14 years, Hall and Dunning — “sisters from different centuries,” as Dunning puts it — have become inseparable, attending more than 500 concerts together and forging an enduring friendship. For Hall, the relationship has been profound. “I can’t unpack who I am separately from how she has impacted my life,” Hall says. “So much of me is a result of the time and love and care that she has invested in our relationship and how she lives her daily life.”

For Dunning and Hall, there’s no such thing as a generation gap. “A lot of people have asked me, ‘What do you do with a 91-year-old?’” Hall says. “We drink wine. We go out to dinner. We clean out the flowers on her back deck. We sit around and drink coffee. We do what we’d all like to do with those we love.”

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Dunning collects rabbits. Not real ones: cute, ceramic keepsakes that she perches on a table in her living room. They’re an apt metaphor for a woman who never seems to run out of energy. And while resolution is the theme of most third acts, it’s impossible to say how Dunning’s story will end — because she’s still busy writing it. And so are the legions of people whom she’s inspired along the way. Their roles are central to her story.

After all, how many creative arts careers will be launched by the School of the Arts scholarship that Frank Benedetti and Gary Trowbridge set up for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students and their allies? How many new musicians will be created by Ben Folds’s Keys for Kids initiative, which provides assistance to underserved students in North Carolina who want to learn how to play keyboards? How many more creative lives — like that of Katie Hall — will be enriched by Dunning’s friendship, wisdom, and generosity?

As she stands in the lobby of the High Point Theatre following the conclusion of The Marriage of Figaro, Dunning converses with friends – among them Hall, her fiancé, Dr. Jonathan Nicolas, and two more recent additions to Dunning’s ever-expanding universe of young artists, costumer Jenna Anderson and songwriter Alexis Ward. Earlier in the evening there had been discussion of a nightcap after the show, but tonight’s effervescent performance has been intoxicating enough. Besides, if you find yourself in the company of Phyllis Dunning, you know that wherever that is, you’re already in the right place.