>> this week on q&a, our guest is michael kaiser, president of the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts. >> michael kaiser, can you remember when you first got interested in the arts? >> is it was 4 years old. she stood in the balcony of the porch of her home and you could see a little girl playing a piano and i was captured by the

magic of the theater. >> were added to live in? what i lived in new york. once a year, my parents to the children to the broadway theater and i was hooked. >> what followed that in your involvement in the arts? >> my grandfather was a violinist. i was able to go with my grandmother to many of the dress rehearsals. i got to hear the great music played by a great symphony. i had a very strong grounding in classical music and my parents were big theater goers and museumgoers. i got to enjoy theatre and museums and visual arts and dance came much later in my life. that was the start. >> where to go to high school? >> a lot of the people have gone to my high school.

we went to the same high school. >> what did you do there that further your interest? >> i sang. i wanted to be an opera singer. i was a really good high school senior and not a very good singer past high-school. i did a lot of singing and study of science and math. >> wanted to pick brandeis university? >> i started at mit and then decided i wanted to be a singer and to the conservatory of music and my voice teacher left, so i left. i ended up at brandeis and then went to summer school. i ended up graduating with my class at brandeis. the reason i went to brandeis was because i could study economics and music which was the interest of my life. >> when did you decide you wanted to make a career of this business of the arts? >> i had the idea in

undergraduate school. had a thesis on productions, which they were not doing at the time. i did this thesis which made economic sense. i got interested in the managerial site of the arts, but it was really not a career back in in arts management. it was not anything you could say that you wanted to start here and move your way up. it was a career that people fell into a rather than plan for. i did not start immediately in arts management. >> >> compare today as to when you were growing up, do we have more arts or less? >> over the past years, there has been an increase in ballet companies, theater companies and we have so many more than we had in the 1950's. it is a wonderful thing.

people can live almost anywhere and enjoy the arts and participate in the arts. >> jumping all the way to where you are today, 67 cities, 83,000 mi., meeting all of these groups, 11,000 people that you got yourself in front of, what is this tour that you completed and why? >> i started the tour 15 months ago. there were so many arts organizations that were confused on how to handle the current economic recession. i was reading so many stories about arts organizations whose first response was to cut their programming. either less programming or less interesting programming. i knew, from my career, that programming is what creates revenue and when you cut your programming, you cut your revenue not just for this year but for future years as well.

i thought it was important to discuss this publicly. i went around the country and went to 69 cities and had public forums discussing how you handle the recession and how you don't handle the recession. 11,000 people came to the sessions, which was quite spectacular. >> pick a stop where you were surprised. >> i would have to say kalamazoo michigan. it is a wonderful town with 75 people and a lot of education. 400 people came to the ballroom of the local radisson hotel and completely filled the ballroom. the mayor came in the city council came and it was an outpouring of interest in the arts and pride in the arts in their community and concern for how their arts could survive in

this recession in a state that has been so dramatically affected by the recession. >> why were you surprised by that? but i was surprised by the numbers. in general, i had a hundred 52200 people -- 150 to 200 people. i did not expect to have 400 people show up. >> were you disappointed in any town? >> not really, in some towns, the local organizers have done less of an aggressive marketing effort. i really was not interested in how many people, i just wanted people that i could talk to and have a dialogue and hopefully i could have ideas. >> your in front of all of these audiences. what is the question that is always asked? >> the biggest question had to do with boards. there is such attention in bad

economic times between the staffs and the boards in so many arts organizations were board members think that the staffs are not making decisions or accommodating the recession and of either the boards were a little more generous so that they could survive in the recession. i think that that tension was really evident. we have many board members at our session and many staff members. so many on both sides have questions. >> therefore, this book that you have out here. >> that is my book, "leading roles: 50 questions every arts board should ask ", which should come out in september. i wrote my answers because i think there is a little education of board bibbers. people join arts boards with

generosity of spirit and generosity of finances and wanting to be helpful with ideas. no one really trains them on how to be a good board member and what makes success and what they need to be thinking about as board members. this book is one attempt to help address that. >> your city in the middle of the kennedy center. what is your job? >> as president, i am responsible for everything that happens at the center. as artistic director, i am responsible for the programming that we produce here. i am very much responsible for paying for that programming and fund-raising to pay for that programming. also, i am responsible for leading the educational programs which are very substantial we bring children -- very substantial. we bring children and adults in to be better arts leaders. >> the budget every year is how much?

it >> what not, it is about a $165 million budget. >> how much comes from the top? > >> we have $20 million to operate and then another $15 million for the educational programs. we produce around the country in all 50 states. it brings arts to people with disabilities from the united states. the rest of the money, about $130 million of our operating budget we have to find either through ticket sales or through our fund-raising or through the rear of our facilities, food- service, parking and etc.. >> how many auditoriums are in the building? >> there are nine

stages. at 6:00 p.m. every day of the year, there is a performance that is available without a ticket. it cost nothing to come and those performances are also put on the internet, live. we feel that we need to create art for everyone, even those who cannot afford a ticket. >> did you start the millennium stage, and what was the reason? if you didn't, why not? >> the chairman that was my first chairman had the vision that we needed to make are available to everyone. he really had this notion of doing three performances every day and we started them before i arrived. i worked very hard to improve the quality of the millennium stage and the relevance of our main stages. we spent a great deal of energy and money to make these much better performances and also tied more to what we do in

given type of art. >> what do you say to the taxpayer that says that i do not want that arts stuff? >> there are a lot of reasons that money should come from the taxpayer to the arts. there is a very big economic impact. different studies that you read will have different multipliers. there is about a six times impact based on what the government pays for the arts. there is also an educational reason. one of the big challenges that we face in our country is that we are no longer a manufacturing economy. less than 17% of our gross domestic product comes from manufacturing. we are a created economy. if you talk to business leaders as i do, they will tell you that

we need a workforce that is smart, that is created, that things outside of the box, that can solve problems. the arts can play a big and inexpensive role in educating our children. >> how big is your board? >> our board is 59 people. it is made up of president -- is made of presidential appointees and members of congress and three cabinet secretaries and six members of our border it is quite a large board-hour board. it is quite a large for. >> what is your first bit of advice on how to deal with 59 people that come from all over the political spectrum? >> the most important thing is to do interesting work. if you do interesting work, and because we do so much work here , we do have work that can

interest a broad spectrum of people, not just our board, but two of the community. our job is to be the national cultural center. my focus is to the interesting work for the whole nation, not just for washington d.c.. >> what are michael kaiser things that are done by board members? what you do to keep them interested? >> the most important thing is to not keep -- to treat the board like a monolithic body. the board is not the board. they are a group of people with different interests and passions. my job is to get it to one-is to get each one excited. -- to get each one excited. if i can get them to get excited about it, they will start to feel much closer to the mission

of the organization. >> in your new book, i read briefly where you were asked to serve on the opera board. >> i wanted to be a staff member, not a board member permit it was my fault, not their started i believe that board members-not theirs. i believe that board members -- not theirs. i believe that board members get frustrated. i was frustrated because i want to be a staff person. my passion was coming through. this is what got me to become an arts manager and that's what i sold my business and moved into arts management. >> there are a lot of things

that you have done. the kansas city ballet. what did you learn from that experience? >> my first job was to run the kansas city ballet. it was a very good midsize ballet company that was virtually bankrupt. what i had to do was to change the way the community perceived that organization. every two weeks, we had to call donors to pay the donors. -- to pay the dancers. i got a local news anchor and put him on the board and he put it on his show four times a year. i did a talk show three times a year. we did a tour in new york city which made us the first arts group to perform from kansas

city. when the relationship in the organization and did a great deal of work. we've built our presence in the community and the feeling in the committee that we were supporting and repel the deficit in 10 months. >> how long did to stay there? >> i was there about one year and a half. >> you also said you did not want to leave an organization in debt. have you ever done that? >> no, i only leave organizations when i pay off the deficit. when you turn around and organization, you do have to leave. you remember that you do not necessarily have the spirit to take the risk that you need to take for success. each time i did a turnaround of a troubled organization, at the end of that turnaround, i had to leave and it was often very painful because i have become part of a family and i really cared about them.

>> in kansas city, is there any money coming from the taxpayer? >> there is a very small amount from the city of kansas city and a small amount from the state of missouri and a small grant. it was less than $100,000 in a $1.7 million budget what was next for you then? >> after i left the kansas city ballet, i went to a library in new york city which is a beautiful tool of a museum. i was the associate director and i was fortunate enough to participate in the purchase of the property next door that has become something else. it was a great place to learn. >> along the way, i always wonder what it is that attracts the public as we watch a lot of entertainment, i do not want to

characterize what other people like, but some people think it is the dumbing down of america. do you think so? and if not, what have you found over the years the people are attracted to? >> most popular and it being attracted two or two different things. most popular are stories that people have heard before that are comfortable. music that is familiar. i think this is the reason why "phantom of the opera," swan lake and others are very popular. people are more interested when they are surprised. when i ask people to name the one arts experience of their life that was most meaningful, it is very rarely "swan lake" fourth "phantom of the opera." it opened up a new vista for

them. a lot of people are most excited when they see something that truly surprises? >> do you have something like that in your own life? >> i have to. i found one show a credible is surprising and the second one was when i was pakistan and saw great performers from throughout the muslim world. it is beautiful music, but it is also a sound with virtuosity. it totally amazed me. >> on your own time, what is the first music you turn on? >> it depends on my mood.

i listen to a very wide range of music. i am fortunate to have been educated about a wide range of arts in general. i cannot say there is one go to thing, although i would say that a recording by price would be what i would listen to. >> what is the most surprising thing with a touch to like -- we would think that you like. >> i love sports. i spend a lot of time watching sports. people do not expect of me. they think that i am a geek. >> after morton, you want to wear? >> after morgan library, i was fortunate to be brought on by the alvin ailey dance theater. i was there for three years and during their turnaround, mr.

ailey had been dead for a year. there were performing all over the country and all over the world, but shortly after i arrived, we got hundreds of letters of condolence is because they thought that alex haley was mr. ailey. we have to explain who we were to the public. i call this institutional marketing for it is marketing not devoted to getting committed. i did a big exhibition at the smithsonian. we did central park and the published books about the company. we had a whole range of activities. we made the public much more knowledgeable about the organization and a double our

fund raising from one year to the next. >> does that have a taxpayer componenttaxpayer >> they get a grant -- does that have a taxpayer component? >> >> it is less and $400,000 or $500,000 a year and their budget is 14 million. it is primarily ticket sales because they too were so much and grants. i started to learn a lot about these organizations. typically, the organizations will get about 65% of their contributions from individual donors. the vast preponderates comes from individuals, not the super rich. arts organizations of color tend to get 6% of their contributions

from individuals. one of the things that we worked very hard on was to get more and more individuals giving money because the problem is they are very cyclical. when the economy goes south, they're giving it goes south. there seems to be a ceiling as to how much they will give and then there is no ceiling with individuals. it has been a theme of my worked in arts. >> why the disparity in your opinion the three organizations of color and white organizations? >> organizations of color are mostly focused on religions, church and health care and not so much the arts. that is changing gradually. that has certainly been the case in this country the african-

american -- in this country. the african-american group has been focused on other things. >> what other towns that you have been to have vigorous arts organizations? >> all over the country. small towns like meridian, mississippi to the biggest cities such as cleveland. i went to detroit, seattle and everywhere in between three i went to salt lake city which has a rich arts organization and my last stop was boise, idaho. a dance organization is headquartered there and they are treated like rock stars. that is what is so wonderful about this to work. othe was concerned about keeping

the arts help a, but there was tremendous passion from board members and staff members. >> what has happened with the media, internet, and all the stuff you can do in your home, what has happened with attendance? >> there is a strong competition that comes with online entertainment. ticket pricing has been used to balance our budgets too much over the last 30 or 40 years. to give prices have gotten too high for a lot of people who have come to think of the arts as reluct-irrelevant to them -- irrelevant to them. you can buy a computer and watch the arts forever. we have to start to address how much we are charging for our

tickets and how we bring people into arts theaters in light of this competition. on the other hand, the internet has become our best friend. we cannot communicate with a lot of people for free -- can now communicate with a lot of people for free. we use direct mail pieces or advertisements through newspapers. we can have audio clips and biographies and a great deal of them permission to explain less familiar art to people. i believe the internet is our best friend, but we also have to understand that it is competition and we have to do our ticket price accordingly. >> how many people to you have on staff? what's our administrative staff is about 400 people, but there are 1200 employees at the kennedy center. we also have two full-time orchestras. >> 59 members of the board. 12 members of congress.

>> 14. >> of 14 members of congress. >> do they all come to the meetings? >> some do. i can call them when i need them and talk to them about what is going on in their state. we do so much arts education around the country. i make arts education automatic. when i go to a particular state, i can talk to our board member from that state and start to talk about who they know and how they can do this in an efficient way. our congressional members and our cabinet officers are extremely happy and -- helpful to the kennedy center. >> i read that right after you came here, there was a plan for a $650 million project here on the plaza. it $400 million was supposed to come from the federal government. what happened? >> this was a project in the

middle of the 2000's and the country have to substantially cut back the transportation projects that were being funded by the trust fund legislation. about $100 billion was cut from that piece of legislation. that included our project. that would have tied us to downtown washington, but we have to turn lemons into lemonade and we used our time to focus on our national programming and to focus on new programming in lieu of that construction project. >> what chances do you give that that project will come back? >> it is a tenure project, so it will take a new head of the kennedy center to be involved in that project because they will have to make a commitment for a tremendous amount of resources

and time. >> i noticed that you lost your sister last year. you had given her a kidney. >> i did, in 1988. >> what were the circumstances? >> >> my sister was a diabetic. there are many people that suffer from that disease. kidney failure is something that happens. she was on dialysis, which is not a sustainable care for her .- cure for her i decid i decided to give her a kidney. it was not a hard decision to make. >> how long did it take you to make that decision? >> it took about one minute. i was visiting her and she had just had a stroke. the stroke was for to make it difficult for her to continue

her dialysis. i asked what her options were and the doctors said she could do a transplant. i told him that i was in there it was not a hard decision to make. >> how long did it take you to recover? >> i was back to work after 10 days. >> any impact since then? >> i am not supposed to do skiing and i am not supposed to do car racing, both of which i can give up easily. >> i have yet to see anything negative about you in any of your profiles. do you get tired of reading the same thing about you and all these profiles? >> i get tired of talking about it more than i get tired of reading about it. i am on a mission, and my mission is to really start and a cadre of arts managers to see to the help of our arts so that they are not hanging by their

fingernails so often. if i can talk about those issues publicly, i feel i am doing something to further my mission. that is why i continue to talk in the press and why i continue to talk about these issues because i do believe that we are making progress and i do believe that 10 or 20 years from now, we will have a very healthy arts ecology a round of world because i'm interested in what is going on around a world. i am focused on getting the message out, that there is stuff to be learned and you can't learn to be a better arts manager and a better board member. >> when you travel is there an occasion when you when go into the community and would not pay attention? what i believe we go >> it was not the focus of my

work. the focus of my work was the people who came to the presentations and a lot of people came and i wanted to make sure that they left with a feeling that they learn something and that they were inspired to really focus and be a part. >> how were you able to do that and still run the kennedy center? >> i have an astonishing staff. i have lost very little of my senior staff. my blackberry is my best friend when i am travelling. i can't communicate with everybody at a moment's notice. -- i can't communicate with everybody at a moment's notice. -- i can communicate with everybody at a moment's notice. i was able to fit in. we all believed it was worthwhile. >> is it true that you wrote a

lot of your last book on >> a a blackberry? >> yes, i would write chunks in the blackberry and when i got home, i would sit and start to edit and put it together and pieces together and make a book out of it. because of the nature of this book, it is questions and answers, it was easy to do on the blackberry. >> know carpal tunnel syndrome? >> know. -- no. >> when you traveled, and you went to 69 cities, what technique did you use to get to all that? >> usually, i would fly of the night before.

i would have a one hour session when i would meet the people. this would be a need and right to talk to people -- a meet and greet where i could talk to people. i will then go-to the airport -- go to the airport. every session was different. it was not that i was doing the king and i. in every stop, i was having a different kind of session. what was of interest of every community would be asked by the citizens themselves or a moderator that knew the community. >> to have an occasion where someone got up and ask why they were listening to you? >> i heard that all the time. i would answer by saying that i

do not think that arts organizations are that much different region to region. this only increases my obligation to do more work. i still have to raise $72 million every year we have to sell $50 million of tickets every year. that is very substantial. i suffer from the same challenges that you suffer from. nobody asks that in an aggressive way. i have to be honest. it was not so much about where the money came from, it is because we talked so much about not cutting programming and this arts manager truly felt the only answer was to do less and less. i disagree with him and he felt so frustrated that i wasn't the knowledge in him. >> -- was not acknowledging him.

>> were to get the idea to do this-where did to get the idea to do this. -- where did you get the idea to do this? >> we decided that we would offer free consulting to any performing arts organization that ask for it. -- that ask for it. -- asked for it. we had 800 organizations ask for free consulting and we offered to consult them. a team members of my staff -- 89 members of my staff -- 18 members of my staff helped them. there was no money changing hands. we had to market this project.

i started to do a couple public sessions. they had questions and they did not really want a consultant to the that is where the idea for the tour came up. i was fortunate enough to go to two of my best donors and tell them of this is what we needed to do and they were incredibly gracious and wrote a check for about $100,000 and we were off and running. >> who is alvin anderson -- ellen henderson? >> she has been very helpful to me. adrian is a treasure on our board di.

she was extremely gracious and helpful and said that she was in. >> what is there motivation-what is their motivation? -- what is their motivation? >> they have different reasons for giving. they really believe that this is important for the nation. i think that they saw the what we were doing is that the money would be leveraged if we could get 11,000 people to learn about managing ouarts associations. >> how to keep them up-to-date on what you were doing? >> >> i believe that we need to talk to our donors and board members about once a month. we work very hard to do so.

>> let's say that i have a lot of money, which i do not. you say that this is a $100 million guide. what is the treatment that i would get? >> let me say what i would not say, first. many arts organizations that plan there are about a year or two years in advance, is a try in interest that person in the next project that they are doing because they are so nervous about how they will find that next project. i plan my heart five years in dance -- my art five years in advance. i ask what is interesting to you. i do not create a project to make you happy. that is not what i believe is correct. when i hear your interest, i think about my menu of projects and i pulled from that list the when one or ones that i think

will be more interesting to you and i talk about those projects. invariably, i do not have to ask people for money. they say that that sounds exciting and ask how they can get involved. >> how often have someone call to direct and said that they have been hearing about you and want to give you some money. ? >> that has happened. i got some small gifts that way. i am trying to get people excited about the work that we do and to attract them to the organization. these people to a of the work is interesting and they might buy a ticket. they may become a major donor. my first job is to get someone interested. >> how often do you attend some

of the performances of the 2000 that you have a year? >> i attend a lot, but i do not attend the 2000 because we have five a day and i would be virtually impossible. i go to a lot of performances and i go to parts of a lot of performances. i certainly do not go to everything. i can't. >> what do you most often go to that you like the most? >> anything that is really good. it could be a great performance by the national symphony, a wonderful theater piece, a performance in the jazz club, i am attracted to all of the work that we do here. >> you have been here since 2001. when is your contract up and what are your plans? >> i just extended my contract, so i will be in the president of

the kennedy center for 2014 and then we received a guest $22.5 million as a commitment to support the network and i will then stay another three years. i am here for quite a long time. >> worded chief the -- bridge to further -- where did you first meet richard duvall? >> he has been a spectacular board member. he was extremely interested in the work that we do. she came to my presentation in grand rapids. she started to see the kinds of things that i was trying to do. they realized that by doing this, they would be supporting

more arts organizations and they thought this was an efficient way of making a signature get to the arts. i am gratified that they felt so much about the work that we were doing and were willing to commit so much. >> $22 million. what do they get for that money? >> hopefully, they get a lot of satisfaction. >> what do you do with that money? >> it will become part of an endowment that will help train art managers. we have an international fellows program that trains about 45 international arts managers from around the world. we teach board members every year. and now, we are teaching regional arts management programs and we are about to start one in detroit and l.a. and seattle and miami.

we are trying to make a major push to train arts managers and boards to create a healthier arts institutions. >> what is the best thing that an arts manager can do to put himself in a position to manage the arts arts you started out -- you started out doing that. >> you have to learn and which yourself in a situation to learn -- put yourself in a situation to learn. i talked at a university for six years. you have to learn the techniques of being a bit arts manager and you need a mentor who can really teach you how to do this well. >> who was your mentor? >> i did not have a mentor in arts management. i have no training to do my job.

i had to learn it all by making mistakes and hopefully having some success, but i did not have any training to do this work and i do not think that is the way this should be. >> what's the biggest mistake you ever madeever >> i thought it would have been goldman sacks. >> i made a lot of mistakes along the way. i misdirected marketing firms in which i did not have the resources to do well. i'm a lot of mistakes along the way, from which i have learned. i try not to repeat them. >> sitting at your desk, and you think about all of the experience that you have had, you talk about not cutting, but there are other mistakes.

>> arts organizations think marketing is what gets people into the seat. they forget that market also has a huge impact on fund raising. i am focused on two kinds of marketing. i do them both very aggressively. i work very hard at both. there are very different from each other. one is aimed at getting people to participate in one is getting people to want to be associated with my organization and that takes a very big focus. >> what always works? nothing >> always works. there are surprises all the time. a great cast was here two years ago. it is very hard for to sell

that. >> was that before or after the movie? it was just after the movie. it was right after the election. people wanted a break from politics. i thought it was a sure-fire hit. >> which one do not expect to be a hit was? what's a lot of our modern dance work. -- >> a lot of our modern dance work. virtually everything sells out. very often, it is esoteric work that i did not think the public would want to see. >> you ran the world opera-the royal opera in london-the royal opera in london? -- the royal opera in london?

>> it was the true turnaround challenge. i did that for about five years to it there was a tremendous loss of confidence in the organization. there is a director was threatening to quit. they have for ceos in four years. they were building one of the great opera houses in the world. they have the royal ballet and the royal opera, to grey -- two great institutions. it was a national joke at the time. i had to restore the excitement in the institution in the new building and raise a ton of money. we have to raise about $100 million in a few months which was a very big challenge occur.

>> how did she know that there was a job there? >> >> there was a turnaround and i had to leave. i was looking for a large challenge and this was the largest one out there. i wrote him a letter and asked if they would hire me. >>i had to get the country and the donors and the audience members to not think of the challenges of the past but to be excited about the new opera house and the work we were going to do. i stopped talking about the problems. one problem that you have is they so often talk and talk about the problems publicly, thinking that somehow that will solve the problem. it does not. it pushes people way. i completely changed the

conversation from loss to the next five years of achievement. >> you live in kansas city, new york other places. what is the difference in the atmosphere in washington for someone trying to run an organization? >> in washington is a city that has a tremendous focus on politics but it also is an international city that gives a platform to talk to the politicians, to talk to the country, and to talk internationally. we do a lot of international were curent the kennedy center to bring unusual art to the countries. the training work that we do outside of our country helps. this city is a perfect city to have that kind of platform. it is very different working in

the united states. the government's funds. that has affected the arts in .his country the challen the challenge is that the new conservative government in england is projecting cuts in the arts from 25% to 45%. that kind of cut can be catastrophic. there are pluses and minuses to working in a system where the government is such a large donor. i wanted to try and build a supply of donors. it shocked the country that so much money could be raised through nomenclature. i was out there raising some

much money. if you now look in on-look at england two years later, it is clear that private money is needed to supplement what the government can give. >> how much of the royal opera house budget was supplied by the government? what's it was less than one-third. it is substantially less than continental europe for 50% to 7% comes from the government. -- to 7% -- 70% comes from the government. it depends on the country. there are south american countries and asian countries. but that is changing. almost every country in the world has the government trying

to cut the funding levels and there is this tremendous panic because they do not know how to supplement the government funding. they do not have the experience from private funding. there is a tremendous interest and excitement in learning how we do things. it is one of the reasons why the teaching that we do is not in such great demand because countries all over are asking what we will do if our government cuts 5% to 10% a year. what do you do? you need to learn different techniques. that is what we teach. >> we want to get a little guide book to arts and entertainment area i wanted to name in a time. i want you to name a good primer

on the arts o. >> do you need art forms? >> michael kaiser is top five or 10. >> one of the mistakes that people make is that they think that all the good or is in new york or los angeles. there is an incredibly good art in other communities as well. one of the great individuals are great symphonies over the country. the opera company in st. louis is one of my favorite. i love going to see them because they do such interesting productions. there is great art throughout this country. what i think all arts

organizations have not done well enough is to make their case outside of their home communities so that they can start to build support for the organizations of sun of the committee. the kennedy center raises 60% of our funding outside of the washington area. we are able to expand our activities outside of washington. there are organizations all over the country. i am hoping they can start to build their profiles. that was a very important part of my message because i believe that they have a claim on resources in their communities. >> i am talking about your favorite broadway show. >> i go back to oklahoma. i was in oklahoma, so i love that.

it is hard to pick one. >> classical music musi? n. i am a huge mozart famil in my singing, i was a base and there was an awful lot of blocah his. music is so glorious. i did a big project that was one of the great projects of my life. i'm a jazz fan. it is hard for me to narrow it damown. >> what about ballet? >> as ballet company start to cross borders, different styles

do not exist anymore. i love to young dancers that are 20 years old and they are astonishingly good. we are lucky to have them every year at the kennedy center. i love seeing those companies. but also like the miami city ballet. there are great ballet companies around the country that i truly enjoy. in modern dance, i love the gamut. paul's company is close to my heart. i love the less well-known countries -- companies such as odc. >> you say that you will be here

until 2014. this year is a $165 million budget and you have 14 members on your board that are members of congress. are they expected to go back to the congress and get more taxpayer money for this? >> no, that is not how we use them. it will use them when we want to do work for their communities. we have appropriations committees that we work with. we have an annual hearing and we make our proposal and to work &d. a land of the -- ln bucks one not? what i do not think it is necessarily appropriate -- >> why not? >> i do not think it is necessarily appropriate. >> what is your supposition of

the future of the arts. you have come through this bad. financially. what is it or to look like going forward? >> >> children participate in the arts through their teen years and i know a lot of people move away from the arts because they start dating and they start thinking about their careers and they go to college most people have very little discretionary time. they do not participate in the arts announced. -- the arts are enough. audience members and board members and donors, you now have a generation coming up that did not have the arts very much as children. these are now the 20-year-old. i am conce