YouSaid · the spoken record

Deborah Rutter

lines on the record: 86
first: 2019-12-02
most recent: 2019-12-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We do have our own organizations. Do you do the National Statistical Organo? And the Washington National Opera. So we have our own opera company, our own orchestra. And we do, I will challenge an art form that we don't do there at the center. Sometimes it's not as full-blown in terms of multiple performances, but we try as the National Cultural Center to have every art form in the performing arts as a part of the spaces. We have nine stages in the main center that everybody has known from the concert hall and the opera house to the theater center or the family theater to our millennium stages. Now what we understood as we look to the future, we needed new spaces for different kinds of experiences. And this is to partner with, not to shunt aside, but really to build up the overall experiences. In my five years of”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just find to people there's lots of things in the Kennedy Center. It's not just you don't have your own orchestra, is that correct? You do have our own orchestras. Are you the National Special Orchestra? And the Washington.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm thrilled to tell you what immersive means because we get so many experiences with it now. But let me just start by saying in 1958, President Eisenhower signed legislation that created a national cultural center. In 1964, after the loss of President Kennedy, Congress then changed that legislation to make it the living memorial to John F. Kennedy. So we are, as far as I can say, without peer in terms of being a living memorial to a president and being a national cultural center for such an important country in the world in the most powerful city of the world.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this is what I have been thinking a lot about recently. And I'm addicted to my devices just as much as everybody else is. During the last months of opening the reach, I felt like there wasn't, you know, 30 seconds that could go by without me checking what kind of communication I was getting. But I will tell you that the two weeks of the opening of the reach solidified for me something that I've been thinking a lot about for these five years here, which was all sort of on top of my decades with other orchestras.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gives us that opportunity Well, changes voice it upon you with a really secular shift, and not just for you all, but all entertainment, all arts, all things that are analog, and how you then doesn't mean people are not interested in it, but the idea of convincing people that there's”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How do you reach out to God? It's really true that when you become a student of institutional change, sometimes change is hard if things aren't going badly. How do you really take something and then make it really launch into another realm? For us right now, with the opening of these new spaces at the reach, it gives us that opportunity. That really gives us a huge opportunity. But most of the time, if you're a healthy institution, big change is hard to really make without some kind of cataclysmic moment.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Such as this because Well, I'm interested how you're going to keep an art institution going in this era. Not that you have to fail necessarily, but how do you keep it going? How do you reach out to art?”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we still, you know, wemers still focus so much on what the world thinks about us and who's saying what things about us. So that's why we like having conversations such as this. It's still really important because you are influencers. You and your colleagues, whether it's in the...”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, right, 100%. When I was at the Washington Post, it was Joe McClellan, I think it was, you know, there was always some big named person critic that mattered more than anything, which isn't the case anymore. Yeah, we still...”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely, and this was a time where we invested a lot in our website, what we put on the website, the kinds of programming. It's a time when media was changing early on. So we really decided that we needed to be responsible for telling our own story. Right, right, 100%.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In Chicago, which was really important to the people of Chicago, frankly. And through a period of time, we took the orchestra more deeply into community. We built systems that brought schools and community together. We wanted to be at the table to help solve some of the biggest problems in the Chicago community and built that as a part of the identity for the orchestra. It's leadership, the orchestra musicians themselves. And that has been a really fantastic, really great opportunity. What do you do when you have a really fantastic, artistic ensemble? How do you help them grow and evolve and become more deeply? And this is the time period when the internet...”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. So when I got to Chicago, it was in a big transition period. And the complacency around the institution about the way in which they needed to engage with their audiences had really come to a point where it was going to really take a nosedive oar to move back up. So it was not the easiest and fun to change the culture to focus on that. But now it's fully embraced and they really have a fantastic ongoing connection to community. And one of the orchestras that is wildly successful from an audience and community perspective, we at that time created a new tagline for the orchestra, which was called World's Best Period, Chicago's Own Period. The idea being you're an international super rock star institution, and yet you're deeply grounded here.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Beautiful very special. I do think it's a very special place. I still enjoy being Chicago. So I went to Chicago and the Chicago's have everybody. Working hard, they are. But also audience needs. You were losing all this. Absolutely.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And trying to advance the idea that you needed to look to the future to think about how technology could advance you, but to do it practically.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I see the mountain. I've seen I think it's a very special. I think it's a very special place. I still enjoy being Chicago. So I went to Chicago, and the Chicago said if everybody has a special orchestra that they love more than every other orchestra, and every orchestra I've worked with is my personal orchestra. I have a special affection for the Chicago Symphony just because of their history, the extraordinary music making, the legendary music musicians who have worked there. It's really quite different, though, to go from a scrappy city, even with you think of Seattle today. It's a scrappy city. They're working hard. They are energizing. They're exploring new worlds. I really believe this concept of a culture of a place to go from sort of the wild west of Seattle to Chicago, the center of the country, broad shoulders, we will power through, we will make things happen, was really quite interesting.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And look at the mountain. What's the mountain? The mountain rainier. Rainier effect. I'm like, I see your mountain. Yeah, the mountain is out. Oh, they always were like, look at the mountain. I said, I see the mountain. My son just looked at University of Washington. We'll see. I think it's...”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's an interesting place. And look at the mountain with the mountain. What's the mountain? The Mount Rainier. It's the Rainier effect. The Rainier effect. I'm like, I see your mountain. Yeah, the mountain is out.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have enough of the rain Less there than here in Washington, D.C., less be really clear. It's just a little gray. I like Seattle. I spent a lot of time. I went out with someone in Salesforce. It's an interesting place. I think it's a gorgeous place. The one thing that someone said to me is the reason we like Seattle is we have a lifestyle. And I said, oh, I just have a life.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what I mean? That's exactly right Then I moved to Chicago, the Chicago Symphony. And in this country, debate always. Actually, Seattle is so beautiful and it rains less there than here in Washington, D.C. Let's be really clear. It's just a little gray. I like Seattle.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh Be close In any case, you couldn't turn around with the ascendants and then crash at Microsoft, too, at the same time with, you didn't crash, they never crashed. You know what I mean? And the same thing with dot-coms and the ascendants of Amazon that was slow. It didn't really happen until the mid-2000s. That's exactly right. So you went then to Chicago.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. So it was really powerful to be in that setting. It had a really pretty formative time. I was there from 92 to 2003. Big changes happening in that region at that time. And I was actually married to a guy who was at Adobe, then Real Networks, then Microsoft. Wow. I was able to sort of be close. And of course, you were all in that community in any case. You couldn't turn around with the essential.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The technology for technology's sake because it will become outdated too quickly. And that was really true because we had a fantastic example in Chicago, a place that I had not yet gone to, where technology was the foundation of their education activity. And the education was overlaid on top of it. And it soon became outdated, a place that people went to once and not again because the technology wasn't the means.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was because we were creating the brand new Benaroya Hall. We had a space for education and learning. And we had one of those early websites. You couldn't quite buy tickets on it yet, but eventually you could. And the question was, should you be streaming performances on your website? And how do you do that? And then in our education space, how much technology should drive it versus sort of the hands-on approach? And I had an advisor, a team, because we've always had this positive link between technology and the arts where those who are interested in one are inevitably interested in the other. It's around creativity and exploring and the undefinable, right? And it was one of those advisors because I was saying, well, how should I use technology in this space for education? And he said, you should use technology as the method to communicate what you're trying to do.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But that's where I first believe I came to understand. I'll never forget them saying technology is a way for you to figure out what you want to do with your primary activity. Don't try and build technology for technology's sake, but to advance what you want to do with whatever your art form is. And that was really, really helpful for me at a very formative time.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was in Seattle for 11 years, and that's where I learned a lot because you can't not with Microsoft Real Networks was there at that time. And was very, very baby when I was there. They were very, very baby. But the whole idea of a web giant baby.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It had one high rise, and that was it. Pretty sketchy. We were across from the art museum that had come in a couple of years earlier than that. And beyond that was, you know, the stretch of street that you really didn't want to walk along. But now it's fantastic, all of downtown. In fact, they complain that it's booming too much. Right.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it transformed downtown Seattle. It was the end of the last century, believe it, opened in 1998. But downtown Seattle was very sleepy.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'll start by saying that soon after I was at the LA Philharmonic, I realized there was a lot that I still needed to know. So I went back to business school. So I did not get an arts degree, but I got an MBA. And that then was able to give me those extra tools and the confidence to take on leadership roles. So directly from the LA Philharmonic, I became the executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a small organization, but it was doing its own programming as well as being the opera orchestra at the very founding of the Los Angeles opera. Was there for six years, went to Seattle, built a concert hall in Seattle, ran the Seattle Symphony. Which one built it up?”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's where I think I was really lucky because my parents were highly educated, had these great professional careers, were volunteers on boards, et cetera, but were really giving me the encouragement to go into an art form and do something that I was really passionate about.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Press if you're in education That they develop training. You wanted to bridge the gap between sort of all these performers, whatever performing space you were doing and rich people, essentially, to take a social part and to get”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And there were no women in senior positions. I remember the woman, first woman who hired me was in education, and the only other woman was in promotions and press. PR in education. And eventually in development, but in operations, I actually dressed to be able to fit into the job that I had, which was in operations. So flat shoes, conservative, easy running around the building kind of clothing. And I kind of dressed that way now just for comfort. But at that time, it really wasn't a place. And there was no, you had to really be, as you say, Twee in knowing about the art form, being on the inside of it. There was no training that went along with it. It was years later that they developed training for it.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Discovered for that So, entrepreneurs to try to do the arts. Now, the arts were done, managing the arts was sort of a more traditional sort of almost, I don't say tweet. That's not really the right word, but it was a very mannered world. Absolutely.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But absolutely gave me the opportunity to really explore. And my first jobs were at the LA Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl. It was at a beautiful time when the bowl was just beginning to blossom and become a little bit of what it is today. It's such a big business and an arts business today. But at that time it was still just being discovered for that possibility. And it was a great opportunity. I was identified as somebody early in her career, had that great opportunity.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. I grew up in Southern California of parents who just naturally loved the arts, primarily music, but theater and dance and popular music, absolutely a part of it. They fell in love by being in a show together. And so that was while they became lawyers and financial advisors and had sort of traditional jobs, this was how they came. That was sort of the heartbeat of our family. And I am the beneficiary of a period of time when arts were still in the school day. So in the third grade, they opened up the cabinet and said, what instrument will you play? And my destiny was based on the decision to pick up a violin. And I spent all of my life really following my nose, following my heart, where it led me, as it related to music in particular, but I was always a consumer of all of the arts. And Southern California today still is quite rich in the world.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All those many years ago, people would go to see a show and they would entertain that way. I first came into arts management at about that same time, and it was absolutely what people did. Travel was not so ubiquitous in the business world, the need to engage personally was one around entertainment, which it still is. But it was much more focused on coming to a place to do that and a place, a performing arts center, no matter where in the world it was. And so the Kennedy Center, as you look at the design, you can see it, boxes, entertainment spaces, grand foyer.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, Kara, this is really the story of the Kennedy Center, I think. It was created nearly 50 years ago, 48 years ago, to be precise. And it was emblematic of how people spent their time.”
2019-12-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Deborah Rutter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT