By Norman Lebrecht
Deborah Rutter, President of the Kennedy Center since 2014, has decided to quit at the end of this year. She has given no reason.
Might have something to do with the Trump era.
Rutter, 68, came to Kennedy from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She succeeded in uniting its disparate components, less so in projecting a national arts leadership role for the flagship institution.
Press release follows:
(WASHINGTON)—Deborah F. Rutter, who has served as President of the Kennedy Center since 2014, today announced her decision to step down at the end of this year. In November, the Center announced that chairman David M. Rubenstein would continue to lead the board through September 2026. The Center’s board of trustees has formed a search committee to identify Rutter’s successor. Executive search firm Spencer Stuart has been retained to assist with the search.
Rutter, an established arts industry leader before coming to Washington, D.C. a decade ago, leads one of the world’s largest and busiest performing arts institutions. The sprawling Kennedy Center presents theater, contemporary dance, ballet, vocal music, chamber music, hip hop, comedy, international arts, and jazz, and also serves as the home to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Washington National Opera (WNO). With over 2,000 diverse performances each year—and two major televised awards shows, Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor—the Center attracts 1.5 million ticketholders and over 2 million visitors annually. Rutter also guides the Center’s global network of over 40 education initiatives—making it the nation’s largest provider of arts education—reaching more than 2.1 million individuals. Rutter is also credited with landing the prominent Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the NSO’s Music Director in 2016, cited by the Washington Post as a “coup for the NSO.”
“After more than 10 extraordinary years in Washington, D.C., collaborating with some of the most phenomenal artists, cultural leaders, diplomats, philanthropists, volunteers, and administrators, I have come to believe it is time to pass the torch,” said Rutter. “It has been a great honor to work with the best in the world. It is time now to hand this truly unique institution to a new leader who will take the power and majesty of the arts to the next level.”
She added, “When I arrived at the Center in 2014, I was curious how the many and varied artistic genres under one roof could combine into multi-disciplinary experiences; how the storytelling of every art form could be more powerful if we incorporate new technologies and new environments; and how art and arts education could be integrated into our daily existence. Through all of this, the goal has been to live up to our name as the national cultural center, expanding our reach and ensuring our work reflects America, and the world. The last decade of artistic growth at the Center has been thanks to our staff, our artists, and our audiences’ eagerness to explore new ground together—with trust, respect, and joy.”
First published at Slipped Disc, January 27, 2025
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