Dr. Loren Zachary; Aided Opera Singers

Dr. Loren L. Zachary, who translated his love of Viennese opera into a support group to help young opera singers begin their careers, has died.

Zachary died Saturday of heart failure in Brotman Hospital in Culver City, where he had practiced for four decades, said his wife, Nedra. He was 85, although he disliked revealing his age and once told The Times, “I’m too old to tell.”

With his wife, Zachary founded the Loren L. Zachary Society in 1972, devoted to producing operatic concerts and setting up annual nationwide vocal competitions for young singers. The goal was to help struggling Americans gain a toehold in Europe, where there are more opera companies than in the United States.

He began by paying singers’ air fare and arranging auditions through friends in Vienna.

By 1973, Zachary had an organized program, funded by contributions and fund-raising luncheons and concerts. The first winner received $300 and a round-trip flight to Vienna. A couple of decades later, the society was awarding more than 10 times that amount to each of five winners from New York and five from Los Angeles.

Despite his insistence that “I’m a physician, not a musician,” Zachary served as one of the judges, along with booking managers, European theater agents and recording producers. The retired doctor helped select this year’s winners last June at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

Trained in music only through his unflagging attendance at operas, Zachary also translated lyrics and directed and produced performances for his society’s Los Angeles Concert Opera Assn. The concerts, presented in hotels or campus theaters, included such works as “Die Fledermaus” and “The Merry Widow” and lighter fare such as “Fiddler on the Roof.” His final production was “The Viennese Cabaret” earlier this month at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Born in Vienna, Zachary got his first taste of opera as a 5-year-old when his parents took him along to the theater on Friday nights. “I didn’t enjoy it too much,” he confessed years later to The Times.

But by his teens, he had developed a passion for the art form and attended performances at the Vienna State Opera with his friends, flirting with girls during intermission.

Zachary’s medical education at the University of Vienna was interrupted when Hitler invaded Austria in 1938. The young student escaped to the United States a year later with $13 in his pocket, but was unable to gain admission to an American medical school. He spent 10 years working in Los Angeles before returning to Vienna to earn his medical degree.

After four decades as a family doctor on Los Angeles’ Westside, Zachary retired in 1993 to devote full time to fostering opera.

His native Austria awarded him the Knight’s Cross Second Class for his work in promoting Viennese arts.

In addition to his wife, Zachary is survived by his son, Claude; daughter, Susan Marshak; stepdaughter, Melanie Richlin; and three grandchildren.

Nedra Zachary, who said she will continue his work, asked that any memorial contributions be sent to the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts, 2250 Gloaming Way, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.