Chapter 1
1. This quote comes from an extensive New York Times story of October 11, 2001, written by Ralph Blumenthal and Robin Pogrebin. It attempts to describe a heated Lincoln Center Executive Committee meeting held on October 1, 2001. The journalists claim that two sources heard Mr. Rose complain to Beverly Sills that “you stabbed me in the back.” Mr. Rose denied uttering that remark. Ms. Sills denied hearing it. Whatever the case may be about this specific comment, no one denies that the meeting and others like it were filled with contention and controversy.
2. To familiarize yourself with the Federalist Papers and other original documents central to America’s history, see Richard Heffner, ed., A Documentary History of the United States (New York: Signet, 2009).
3. See Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944); Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (New York: Penguin, 1982); Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); and Alan Greenspan, The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting (New York: Penguin, 2013).
4. I recommend reading Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Penguin, 2003); Waldemar Nielsen, The Endangered Sector (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979); Lester Salamon, The Resilient Sector: The State of Nonprofit America (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2003); and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
5. Gallup Poll Social Series: Mood of the Nation, January 19, 2012.
6. 2012 American Value Survey.
7. 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer.
8. For a thorough critique of the costs of excessive law and regulation to America’s economy, see Philip Howard’s two books: The Death of Commonsense: How Law Is Suffocating America (New York: Random House, 2011) and The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government (New York: W.W. Norton, 2014).
9. In his landmark book Presidential Power, after reviewing all of the constitutional powers of the chief executive of the federal government, Richard Neustadt concludes that the capability to persuade is the most potent weapon at the president’s disposal (New York: Macmillan, 1960).
1. In his book The End of Power, Moisés Naím argues that the authoritative allocation of resources, the ability to get things done, is eroding everywhere: in companies, in US foreign policy, and in Congress. Leadership is being challenged almost wherever one looks, claims Naím. Check out the book’s subtitle: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to State, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be (New York: Basic Books, 2013).
2. For a classic account of the economics of nonprofit performing arts organizations, see William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen, Performing Arts—The Economic Dilemma: A Study of Problems Common to Theater, Opera, Music and Dance (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1966).
3. The following books were published by or in association with John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or Lincoln Center. They are listed in alphabetical order by author: Kyle Froman, In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007); James Galway, Man with the Golden Flute (New York: Turner Publishing, 2009); Rob Kapilow, All You Have to Do Is Listen: Music from the Inside Out (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008); Rob Kapilow, What Makes It Great: Short Masterpieces, Great Composers (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011); Reynold Levy, Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008); Lincoln Center, Poet-Linc: Poetry Slam (London: Black Dog, 2013); John Pizzarelli and Joseph Cosgriff, World on a Sting: A Musical Memoir (New York: Turner Publishing, 2012); Charles A. Riley, Art at Lincoln Center: The Public Art and List Print and Poster Collections (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009); Lesley Rosenthal, Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2012); Stephen Stamas and Sharon Zane, Lincoln Center: A Promise Realized, 1976–2006 (New York: Turner Publishing, 2006); Hao Jiang Tian, Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008); and Carl Vigeland, The Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Chapter 3
1. See Willard Spiegelman’s story, “Nights in Full Swing in Damrosch Park This July,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2008.
2. The Lincoln Center Programming department, led by Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz artistic director, includes such talented staff as Hanako Yamaguchi, director, music programming; Jon Nakagawa, director, contemporary programming; Lisa Takemoto, production manager; Bill Bragin, director, public programming; Charles Cermele, producer, contemporary programming; Kate Monaghan, associate director, programming; Jill Sternheimer, producer, public programming; and Mauricio Lomelin, associate producer, contemporary programming.
3. Nigel Redden, the director of the Lincoln Center Festival, enjoys some very gifted colleagues. They include general manager and producer, Erica D. Zielinski; senior producer, Carmen Kovens; director of production, Paul E. King; producer, Boo Froebel; and assistant general manager, Barbara Sartore.
1. By constituent, here was the breakdown for a pretty typical year: New York Philharmonic, $1.8 million; Jazz at Lincoln Center, $1 million; Chamber Music Society, $362,000; New York City Ballet, $1.9 million; Metropolitan Opera, $3.5 million; Lincoln Center Theater, $1.1 million; The Juilliard School, $1.9 million; the Film Society, $780,000; and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, $270,000.
2. My confidence in Lincoln Center’s collective ability to climb the fund-raising mountain required by redevelopment sparked a memory. It was the end of 1988 and I had served sixteen months as the president of the IRC. If the IRC were an American, its age would have entitled it to Social Security payments. And yet institutionally, it possessed no endowment and only a minuscule cash reserve. I was convinced that an endowment drive was both necessary and possible. My cochairs needed to be persuaded. Appendix A contains the essence of the case I then advanced to the IRC’s cochairs, Dr. James Strickler and Winston Lord, in an effort to convince them that it was past time to launch its first-ever capital campaign. When I left the IRC for Lincoln Center it enjoyed pledges to an endowment nearing $50 million. Today it totals $140 million. This asset has permitted the institution to act far more confidently and decisively in discharging its mission.
3. Mr. Bennack approached fund-raising with energy, purposefulness, and a sense of humor. In a long feature story by Matthew Gurewitsch, “The Maestros of Lincoln Center,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2007, you will discover quintessential Frank, combining a serious point with a tongue-in-cheek warning:
In the end a project of this size needs very broad based support from the business community—and we’re getting it. Anyone whose feelings are hurt because we haven’t gotten around to them yet can take heart. We will.
4. The most comprehensive analysis and description of the design and redevelopment of Lincoln Center was written by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. It is lavishly illustrated. The quote can be found on page 13 of Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account (Bologna, Italy: Damiana, 2012).
5. A fuller excerpt from each of these laudatory reviews follows:
At Last, Heavenly Acoustics Are Heard in the Hall
The most remarkable and it seems to me indisputable achievement of the [Tully Hall] renovation . . . is that the Starr Theater, though not any smaller, now feels intimate and warm.
—Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, February 23, 2009
Rebirth of the Alice Tully concert hall
Lincoln Centre embarked on an extraordinary plan to reinvent itself. And, despite being clobbered by 9/11 and the present [economic] slump, the city’s great and good seemed determined to make it happen; which is remarkable when you consider that it will cost a staggering $1.2 billion.
The Tully transformation is the first fruit and it’s a triumph.
—Richard Morrison, The Times Online, February 20, 2009
From Spartan to Super: New Yorkers have reason to celebrate the makeover of Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall
Normally, New Yorkers never agree on anything. But everyone seems to think the new and improved Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s supersized “chamber music” venue, is swell.
—Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2009
Now that construction huts have been removed, the exterior of the building is truly breathtaking. The entrance to Alice Tully Hall used to be concealed beneath the overhang of The Juilliard School. Now the corner of the building is all glass, curving upward like the prow of an ocean liner. The lobby is huge and inviting.
The interior of the hall seems more spacious and also more inviting. The hall now seems like a piece of sculpture. The woods used on the walls, both in their textures and the way that they are lit, convey the feeling of a kind of sacred space, which a hall of music in some ways should be.
—Howard Kissel, Daily News, February 29, 2009
Nip and tuck: The latest Lincoln Center refurbishment is a complex piece of urban surgery
Formerly a building that seemed to revel in its appearance as a kind of bleak service area, the architectural firm Diller and Scofidio + Renfro extended the public areas out towards Broadway, created a new sunken public plaza, opened the institution out to the city and radically remodeled both the concert hall itself and The Juilliard School, which sits awkwardly on top of it.
This is an extremely sophisticated and complex piece of urban surgery addressing a number of issues that made the old building deeply unsatisfactory.
The architects to their huge credit, have managed to achieve almost seamless transition from Belluschi’s [the original architect of The Juilliard School] modernism to a sculptural theatricality.
—Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times, March 14–15, 2009
6. A comprehensive account of the design and development of the new Charles H. Revson Fountain was written by John Seabrook and published in the January 11, 2010, issue of the New Yorker.
Chapter 5
1. See Reynold Levy, Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
2. See William Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (New York: Project for Public Spaces, 1980).
3. These included, but were hardly limited to, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York Department of City Planning, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the Public Design Commission of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York City Department of Transportation, the Department of Buildings, the New York City Department of Environment Protection, the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Office of Management and Budget, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York.
4. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lincoln Center Inside Out, 18.
5. E. B. White, Here Is New York (New York: Little Bookworm, 1999), 53.
6. Joseph Volpe with Charles Michener, The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).
7. The original architects were Edward J. Matthews, Philip Johnson, Jo Mielziner, Wallace K. Harrison, Eero Saarinen, Gordon Bunshaft, Max Abramovitz, and Pietro Belluschi.
8. Philip Johnson is quoted in Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lincoln Center Inside Out, 9.
9. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lincoln Center Inside Out, 25.
10. To name but a dozen such additional possibilities, none of which existed in 2002, I encourage you to try dining at Betony, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Cesca, Dovetail, Gari, Josies, Marea, Nice Matine, Ocean Grill, Quest, Sarabeth’s, and Shakeshack.
11. These are the addresses of the apartment houses built by each of these developers: Zeckendorf’s (15 Central Park West); Barnett’s Extell (The Aldyn at 60 Riverside Blvd., The Ariel East at 2628 Broadway, The Ashley at 400 West 63rd St., One Riverside Park, 50 Riverside Blvd., The Rushmore at 80 Riverside Blvd., and The Avery at 100 Riverside Blvd.); Dan Brodsky (The Concerto at 200 West 60th St., 1 Columbus Place, South Park Tower at 129 West 60th St., South Pierre at 160 West 71st St., West End Towers at 55–75 West End Ave., and the West Pierre at 253 West 72nd St.); John Avalon (Avalon Morningside Park at 1 Morningside Dr.); Donald Trump (Trump Place on the Hudson); and Lenny Litwin (The Regent at 45 West 60th St. on Amsterdam Ave. and Hawthorn Park at 160 West 62nd St.).
Chapter 6
1. For the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lincoln Center commissioned the firm of Fisher Dachs Associates to design a stage installation that incorporated some of these very features. It has been in use every summer since 2005. This structural innovation has been uniformly well received by musicians, audiences, and critics.
2. Our prediction came true less than seventy-two hours later and well before there was any time to organize the dignified joint announcement that Bruce Crawford and I had explicitly requested and to which Paul Guenther had agreed. The news broke through the New York Times on Monday, June 2, 2003, in a front-page story, “The Philharmonic Agrees to Move to Carnegie Hall,” cowritten by Ralph Blumenthal and Robin Pogrebin.
3. Our joint statement, issued immediately after the leaked story in the New York Times, is attached in its entirety as Appendix D.
4. The quote appeared in “Philharmonic Deal, Completed Quickly, Left Some in Dark,” cowritten by Ralph Blumenthal and Robin Pogrebin, New York Times, June 3, 2003.
5. As little is more important than the selection of an orchestra’s musical leader, critics and commentators have thoroughly examined the New York Philharmonic’s performance on this score. The consensus is, to put it mildly, nothing to write home about. Just the headlines or summary sentences alone provide a flavor of the consensus judgment.
For Barbara Jepson, “No Maestros in New York Philharmonic’s Top Management,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2004.
For Anthony Tommasini, “Local Leader Wanted: Please Apply Very Soon,” New York Times, December 10, 2006.
Justin Davidson: “The New York Philharmonic is as reliable and consistent as a metronome—and about as dull” (“Orchestrating Change,” New York Magazine, October 9, 2007).
Alex Ross: “For two drowsy decades, the New York Philharmonic played it safe: a pair of grand-old-man directors (Kurt Mazur, Lorin Maazel), redundant festivals of canonical composers (Brahms, Tschaikovsky), the usual parade of soloists (when in doubt, Yo-Yo Ma)” (“Waking Up: Alan Gilbert Takes Over at the New York Philharmonic,” New Yorker, October 19, 2009).
6. New York Times, Quotation of the Day, page 2, from “Carnegie Hall Abandons Merger Talks with the New York Philharmonic,” October 8, 2003.
7. In a New York One interview with Roma Torre, Guenther denied that the announcement of the New York Philharmonic’s move to Carnegie Hall was a bombshell that came abruptly. “Well, first of all, it wasn’t really a bombshell. This is something the board of the New York Philharmonic has been discussing since last year.” Video Monitoring Services of America, July 10, 2003.
8. Here is Dicterow, violinist and concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, on National Public Radio on June 3, 2003. “It’s [Avery Fisher Hall] always very bright and shrill and it’s very hard to get a balance of brass and strings and winds. It’s always tough to hear one another because of the vastness of the stage.”
9. Deborah Solomon, in “Orchestra for Hire: No Strings Attached,” New York Times, October 10, 2003, wrote that during an intermission of a New York Philharmonic concert in Central Park on a Monday in July 2003, “I happened to spot Paul Guenther the chairman of the Philharmonic, who was sitting on a folding chair near the stage and appeared to be in high spirits. I asked him, only half-jokingly how he would rate the acoustics in Central Park.
“Not bad [he said without missing a beat].
Better than Avery Fisher Hall.”
Chapter 7
1. A copy of the full report can be found in Appendix C.
2. The open letter was released to the New York Times and reported on by Daniel J. Wakin in his story of July 7, 2011.
3. Here is Ross holding forth: “Opera is the riskiest of businesses, and City Opera has landed in a precarious position. My sense is that it must finally leave Lincoln Center and escape the monopolizing shadow of the Metropolitan Opera. It should make the most of limited resources and adopt a scrappy, rebellious attitude. Instead of presenting a Broadway millionaire’s adaptation of an old British film about séances, why not get an avid young composer to take on an uncomfortable political subject? I have a fantasy of City Opera setting up shop in Brooklyn and offering a crashingly atonal opera about the life and times of David Koch” (“Flummoxed: Struggles at City Opera and Across the Country,” New Yorker, May 9, 2011).
4. Julius Rudel, in his memoir coauthored by Rebecca Pillar, First and Parting Impressions (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2013), reflects further on his frustration with the New York City Opera’s decline in these memorable words:
Now I understand completely how the actions of ill-informed Board members can destroy an [opera] company. . . . What the Board of the New York City Opera allowed to happen, or more accurately precipitated, is well-nigh criminal. I am at the stage of life where anger is not a frequently felt emotion, but when George Steel, whose knowledge of Opera is limited (to put it kindly) announced that City Opera would leave Lincoln Center, I was outraged. (174)
5. Quoted in James B. Stewart, “A Ransacked Endowment at New York City Opera,” New York Times, October 11, 2013.
Chapter 9
1. See Allan Kozinn and Michael Cooper, “First Extended Talks at Met End Without a Labor Deal,” New York Times, August 2, 2014, in which Tino Gagaliordi of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians is quoted.
2. On July 26, 2014, the Metropolitan Opera widely distributed to the press a document entitled “Corrections/Comments on Local 802 Presentation of 7/25/14: Includes Original Union Presentation with Met Comments Interlineated.”
3. Peter F. Drucker, Managing The Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practice (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 128.
Chapter 10
1. There are certain culinary delicacies that Beverly and I both loved. The blintz. The knish (cabbage? cherry cheese? kasha? potato? anyone?). Chocolate babka. The perfect bagel. All are extremely difficult to prepare well. But there is nothing more challenging than making a world-class egg cream.
In Brooklyn, an egg cream is regarded as a form of high culinary art. As a service to all readers, what follows are the instructions to prepare a perfect version:
Ingredients and implements:
Use Fox’s u-bet chocolate syrup. Nothing else is acceptable.
Purchase an old-fashioned high-pressure seltzer bottle (a bottle of club soda or sparkling water will not suffice).
For a 12-ounce glass, ladle in several tablespoons of chocolate; about half an inch will do for starters (experiment to taste).
Then insert a long spoon into the glass after pouring in about one inch of whole or 2 percent milk. (Skim milk will produce too thin or “watery” a result.)
Aim the seltzer bottle directly at the spoon. Mix briskly.
The result will be a perfect “white head” atop the glass of about two to four inches.
Some cognoscenti prefer vanilla egg creams. For that recipe you will need to turn to another expert. The preparation of egg creams is a highly specialized art form.
2. While there was no formal sunset provision in the donation that Herb Allen extended to Jazz at Lincoln Center, resulting in a glorious glass-cantilevered venue overlooking 59th Street and Central Park, Mr. Allen was moved to a new form of generosity. Aware that Jazz at Lincoln Center was about to embark on a capital campaign and of how few attractive naming opportunities were available to it, he voluntarily relinquished his own. Bob Appel, the chairman of the board of Jazz at Lincoln Center, offered a gift of $20 million. Now the Allen Room has been renamed the Appel Room. What Allen had done in discretionary fashion, Koch bound himself to contractually. Either way, a blessing was bestowed on both the New York City Ballet and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Chapter 11
1. See Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, The Hero’s Farewell: What Happens When CEOs Retire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 38.
2. BusinessWeek, January 7, 2001.
3. See Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).
4. An excellent memoir of two Iraq wars written in the first person by an important and involved practitioner, Richard Haass, employs the term “war of choice.” See Richard Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009).
Chapter 12
1. Of course, Beverly Sills also served on Lincoln Center’s board of directors, and as its chair, no less. But by the time of her appointment to the board, she was no longer earning a living as an artist, having retired at the very young age of fifty.
Chapter 13
1. See Joel L. Fleishman, The Foundation: A Great American Secret—How Private Wealth Is Changing the World (New York: PublicAffairs, 2007), 149–155.
2. See the 1999 report entitled “To Err Is Human,” published by the Institute of Medicine.
Chapter 14
1. Widely regarded as an outstanding national leader in the law of nonprofit institutions, Lesley wrote what has quickly become a standard monograph on that subject. The reader who spends time with Good Counsel (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2012) will be rewarded.