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Shortly after my resignation from the Royal Opera House was announced, I was phoned by Jim Wolfensohn, then chairman of the World Bank, asking whether I would be interested in running the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. I had known Jim casually for some years and had spent a little time with him during my tenure in London. We were united by both a deep interest in the performing arts and, especially, a friendship with Valery Gergiev, the dynamic maestro of the Kirov. To be honest, while I told Jim I would certainly enjoy discussing this position with the appropriate people, my initial thought was that the Kennedy Center job was not right for me. I had often remarked when we took ABT to the Kennedy Center that there was too much staff with too little to do. (I was soon to learn how wrong I was.) I also felt that Lincoln Center, whose own president had announced his resignation within weeks of the same announcement from the president of the Kennedy Center, was a more natural fit for me. I thought of New York as home and I knew then as I do now that Lincoln Center is the most amazing agglomeration of performing arts organizations in the world. But as I studied both organizations from a distance, I learned that the organization structures of the two centers were radically different. Lincoln Center housed a dozen or so independent arts organizations with separate managements and boards. The Kennedy Center was one organization with many art forms coordinated by its president. I would have far more artistic latitude in Washington than in New York. I could develop programming that crossed art forms far more easily in Washington. And, of course, no one from Lincoln Center was knocking down my door. case five the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts (2001–present) .............................................................................. .............................................................................. ................................. .............................................................................. .................................. .............................................................................. ....... 143 john f. kennedy center I met with Jim Johnson, the successful chairman of the Kennedy Center, over lunch in London. He explained the array of possibilities the Kennedy Center had open to it. He made a persuasive case and he seemed to think I was a logical candidate for the top job. I met with Tom Wheeler, the chair of the search committee, also in London, and then had a series of interviews in Washington and New York. Carter Brown, the late director of the National Gallery and a member of the Kennedy Center board, invited me to his home for lunch with Alma Powell, wife of Colin Powell. I met with Ted Kennedy (and his dog Splash) at his office in Congress. Senator Kennedy has maintained a deep interest in the Center, which honors the memory of his brother. I met with Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House. It was all rather heady. The entire search process was remarkably well organized, very different from my experiences at the Kansas City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, ABT, or the Royal Opera House. And it was the first time in my life that an organization came after me for a job—I was used to having to work hard to convince a board to hire me. Throughout the search process, I was asked to give ideas of the things I would want to accomplish at the Center and of projects that I thought might make a difference. I explained that I wanted to make the Kennedy Center an arts destination, with people traveling to Washington in order to go to the Kennedy Center, not simply buying tickets because they happen to be in Washington anyway. I would work to gain more acclaim for the Center, through high-profile, unique programming supported by an institutional marketing program. I had had an idea some ten years before to do a cycle of Sondheim musicals in repertory to dispel myths about the work of the greatest Broadway composer. The search committee seemed to like this idea. Coincidentally, I was invited to a dinner with Leonard Slatkin, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, a vital constituent of the Kennedy Center. Leonard was in London to assume leadership of the BBC Symphony. Leonard and I hit it off immediately. After a three-month process, I was formally offered the job of president and quickly accepted. I would start work in January 2001, a month after leaving the Royal Opera House. My appointment was announced at a press conference held on the stage of the...

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