The Kennedy Center's Open Invitation

Friday, February 2, 2007

With apologies to Joni Mitchell, people have been playing real good for free for the past decade on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. And though nobody stopped to hear Mitchell's street clarinetist, that hasn't been a problem at the Millennium Stage since guitarist Charlie Byrd and pianist Billy Taylor christened it in March 1997 in front of a couple of thousand well-heeled Washingtonians.

Ten years and more than 3 million visitors later, the Millennium Stage remains without equal: the only cultural institution in the world to offer free performances of jazz, classical, dance, folk and more 24-7-365. And if you can't make it there, you can watch it anywhere. Since April 1, 1999, almost all Millennium Stage performances have been streamed live on the Internet.

In the early days, when the concept of a free-concert-a-day was still catching on, a little-known artist might attract a small crowd; on rare occasions, a choir might even outnumber the audience.

But crowds numbering in the hundreds have long become the norm in the Kennedy Center's Grand Foyer, where folding chairs are set up to hold several hundred people, with an equal number sitting on the carpeted stairs leading to either the Concert Hall or the Eisenhower Theater.

The Grand Foyer lives up to its name. It's one of the world's largest rooms -- someone came up with the fact that were the Washington Monument laid horizontally inside, it would fit with 75 feet to spare -- and can accommodate about 4,500 people. But more than 6,000 showed up in 2003 to see Colombian superstar Juanes perform. Seating for the 6 p.m. concerts begins about 5:30 p.m., and for that concert, queues stretched from the Hall of Nations and Hall of States all the way around the building. As people entered the Grand Foyer, they could look through the huge glass wall and observe the River Terrace line moving as well -- a gigantic, festive snake.

Whatever the program, the setting is splendid, particularly before daylight saving time kicks in. At sunset, light streams through the glass wall facing the Potomac, through landscaped willow trees on the River Terrace, a great location for before- or after-performance strolls. The terrace overlooks Theodore Roosevelt Island and the Georgetown waterfront, and you can watch boats floating downriver or the endless chain of planes approaching Reagan National Airport. (The latter can be disconcerting for first-timers; planes seem to be heading directly at the Kennedy Center before banking left for a landing.)

According to Garth Ross, director of the Kennedy Center's Performing Arts for Everyone initiative, the Millennium Stage sometimes makes use of the center's other venues, as when the Concert Hall hosts the National Symphony Orchestra's free performances because "it's the only place we can accommodate them." Last year's inaugural country music festival concluded with 4,000 people crowding the South Plaza for a Western swing dance by Asleep at the Wheel.

But nothing has ever been as complicated as Monday's 10th anniversary celebration of the Millennium Stage, with the center's three major halls offering free performances by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the Eisenhower Theater, the NSO in the Concert Hall and indie rock icon Sufjan Stevens and members of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in the Opera House. The U.S. Navy jazz ensemble, the Commodores, kicks things off at the regular Millennium Stage. Tickets for the three shows were distributed last week, but you won't need a ticket for the Grand Foyer, where all the performances will be projected on large screens.

Ross calls Monday's celebration "an endeavor to be all things to all people in one night in a way that's representative of the scope of our commitment and what we've represented artistically over all these years. We're going to be welcoming audiences into our three largest theaters, hopefully cementing the notion that Millennium Stage is a concept first, and not only a venue, but also knowing that the experience of being in those theaters is part of the Kennedy Center experience."

It's the culmination of a decade-long effort to bring the performing arts to the widest possible audience, to reduce the venue's elitist image and to open its doors to younger, more economically and racially diverse audiences that might not otherwise venture near the marble-and-glass edifice.

"It certainly feels to me that it has a much, much broader constituency now than 10 years ago," says James A. Johnson, chairman emeritus of the Kennedy Center and the man most responsible for the Millennium Stage, figuratively and literally. Johnson and his wife, Maxine Isaacs, were founding donors to the Millennium Stage Endowment Fund (to the tune of $1 million the first year), and he continues to attract donors to cover the Millennium Stage's annual $1.5 million budget, including current sponsors Target and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Johnson was chief executive of Fannie Mae before he began his tenure as the Kennedy Center's fourth chairman in 1996, and there is a link between his old job and the Performing Arts for Everyone initiative he introduced that year. A populist approach, Johnson says, "was very much central to my mind. At Fannie Mae, I had tried to be a leader in diversity, in outreach to the community, particularly the minority community. The phrase we used to use is we've got to be unmistakably clear that this institution is not focused on 'white people in black tie.' "

Johnson notes extensive outreach to Washington's diplomatic enclaves and diverse ethnic communities and to schools. "We can't say we're doing our jobs with an appropriate memorial to John F. Kennedy unless it is clearly for everyone, and clearly welcoming to everybody, and we take down the barrier of cost so we don't have an invisible barrier to coming to the institution."

And, Johnson adds, the Millennium Stage was never just an experiment. "We always saw it as an essential, core commitment of the institution, to reach out to the city, to the international community, to people visiting Washington from around the country. It's essential that the program be diverse; it's also essential that nobody need to plan or arrange to do it."

There is, after all, a Washington tradition of free access: The Smithsonian Institution's many museums don't charge admission; neither does the National Gallery of Art.

"But museums don't change their collection every day," Johnson says, adding that the Millennium Stage concept "was at a level of ambition that was substantial: Every single day of the year, there will be a quality performance in the Grand Foyer at 6 o'clock; no ticket required, nor reservation required. Everyone's welcome."

Such ambition was in keeping with the national cultural center chartered by Congress in 1958 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower and envisioned by President John F. Kennedy as a place belonging to every American. Since its opening in 1971, it has become the nation's busiest arts facility, presenting more than 3,300 performances a year, and became home to the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Opera and the Washington Ballet.

The Kennedy Center is also a major destination for tourists: Three million people visit the center each year, and 1.2 million stay for paid performances.

Although many cultural institutions offer free performances in some fashion, only London's National Theatre approaches the Kennedy Center, offering free pre-performance concerts in its Djanogly Concert Pitch Monday through Saturday and at lunchtime Saturdays. Those concerts predate the Millennium Stage but are mostly chamber classical and jazz. In 1998, Christopher Hogg, chairman of Reuters and the National Theatre, sent a note to Johnson thanking the Kennedy Center and Millennium Stage for pointing the way to "doing what's new and innovative with free programming."

Hogg was acknowledging the broad spectrum of performing arts offered, from chamber music and jazz to folk, comedy, country and bluegrass, and loads of dance and theater both homegrown and international. Ross notes the "increased presence of American roots and traditional music and world roots and traditional music, areas of strength that weren't areas the center already had a strong demonstrated commitment to."

"It's performing arts for everyone, but not at the same time," Ross says. "Avant-garde jazz or new classical or really traditional folk, from one show to the next, and one audience to the next, it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's, in fact, our intent. That allows us to be many things to many people, whereas, as an institution, we have more of [a defined] vision of what we are. Millennium Stage can supplement that in a sort of micro-approach."

Take the Conservatory Project, which presents young artists in classical music, jazz, musical theater and opera from 14 leading undergraduate and graduate conservatories, colleges and universities, including the Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music and Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music. Two weeklong celebrations in February and May will feature top young artists making their debuts in the Terrace Theater; many others will appear in the Grand Foyer. As part of the 2005 Festival of China, 100 pianists performed together on the South Plaza; 96 of them were conservatory students.

"Our commitment to presenting students is tied in to our commitment to arts and education and the role that a national arts organization, can, should and, in this case, does play in that," says Ross, adding that it doesn't hurt for people to be able to say they've performed at the Kennedy Center. Although the focus is on a mix of graduate, undergraduate and postgraduate students, Millennium Stage also works with top public school arts programs across the country and a dozen regional school districts during March's Music in Our Schools programs.

Ross says the Millennium Stage is also a platform for partnerships with embassies and presenting organizations that "highlight Washington's role in the cultural fabric of America and the world." That has allowed for performances by such great artists as Juanes, Senegal's Youssou N'Dour and Nigeria's King Sunny Ade, France's Les Nubians and the Congolese ensemble Konono No. 1.

Roland Celette, cultural attache at the Embassy of France, says the Millennium Stage has presented a wide variety of French performers -- "from very classical music and contemporary dance to folk music, jazz and a cappella ensembles" -- as part of, and apart from, the 2004 Festival of France. Celette says the French Embassy invites groups "that are not so famous but are very good, so it's a good way for them to get through. . . . Of course, it's very nice for them to have on their résumé an appearance at the Kennedy Center -- it has a big prestige -- and they very much appreciate that everything is recorded and put on the Web site."

Other partners include the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, which annually presents "Homegrown: The Music of America" at the library and the Millennium Stage, and the Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival. There is some theater and storytelling and a good amount of dance. Much of the latter comes via international programming, but the Millennium Stage commissions three new modern dance works every year.

According to Ross, a father of two, Millennium Stage events are perfect starter concerts. "Since there are no tickets involved, they offer families flexibility because they do not have to commit to a performance ahead of time. It's at a family-friendly hour, and the hour [length] is family-friendly. The [6 p.m. start] was not instituted specifically for families but around the start times of [regular] performances, usually 7:30 or later, but it's a big reason it has been so attractive to families. And it's real performing arts in a real environment." And should anyone get restless -- that applies to kids and parents -- they can take a walk on the River Terrace and come back.

A Millennium Stage audience can swell to several thousand for well-known artists such as Patti Smith, Frank Sinatra Jr. or Los Lobos. Certain annual events draw huge crowds, such as the Merry TubaChristmas concert (which can feature as many as 100 tubas) and the All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam, now dedicated to Keter Betts, the genial bassist who hosted the concert and helped turn it into a Washington tradition that draws overflow crowds every year. Those crowds can be quite active -- whether led in rousing scat song by Bobby McFerrin, 250 hand drummers loudly supporting the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra or the summer parties that set feet flying to all sorts of dance rhythms.

Washington jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd has a long history with the Millennium Stage: He played its opening night with Billy Taylor and Charlie Byrd and has performed there more than two dozen times with his own group, as a guest artist with others and as part of the Christmas Day jams.

"I always enjoy it," Redd says. "It's been one of the best things about the arts scene in Washington for many years, and they're very receptive to booking local and regional musicians." Redd points out that people going to the Kennedy Center for an opera or dance performance may be exposed to a jazz concert for the first time, "so it's been absolutely wonderful for the [jazz] community."

For far-flung family, too: Redd's 15-year-old son, Charlie, a guitarist, has been a guest with dad in recent years, "and all our relatives and friends around the country can watch" on the Internet. Also able to watch are club owners and concert presenters, Redd says, adding that archived Internet performances serve as "an instant demo video around the country. Also, the sound is always excellent, and it's rare you get that in what's not actually a concert hall. I hope we celebrate the 40th anniversary some day." (Redd will play the Millennium Stage on Wednesday, supporting guitarists Steve Abshire and Vince Lewis.)

The Millennium Stage's reputation is so good that some people come without knowing, or caring, what's going to be on stage. In fact, some years back, a major snowstorm prevented the scheduled artists from getting to the Kennedy Center. Ross managed to track down a pianist living in Foggy Bottom, and the show went on -- with 200 people somehow getting through to provide the audience. That's loyalty.

Richard Harrington writes about popular music and popular culture in Weekend.