[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 21 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1572-S1574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this weekend marked the 10th anniversary 
of the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, a remarkable milestone for 
the center and its special commitment to reach out to the community and 
expand opportunities for citizens and visitors to enjoy exceptional 
performances.
  At 6 p.m. every evening, 7 days a week, the center presents a free 
concert with live performers on the Millennium Stage. Former chairman 
of the board Jim Johnson conceived the idea and guided the center 
through its early performances. Ever since, a remarkable series of 
talented musical artists and performing artists have been a part of 
this effort, from classical to rock and roll, from Sweet Honey in the 
Rock, KC and the Sunshine Band, to Norah Jones.
  More than 3 million people have enjoyed these free performances at 
the center, and countless more have enjoyed them on the Web casts. It 
is a wonderful tradition in the Nation's Capital, and I know that there 
will be many more brilliant performances in the years ahead.
  I urge my colleagues to let their constituents know about these 
exciting performance opportunities. I ask unanimous consent that an 
editorial from today's Washington Post and an article from the 
Washington Post on February 2 about the Millennium Stage anniversary be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2007]

         Concerted Effort--An Anniversary at the Kennedy Center

       Walk into the Kennedy Center around 6 on any given night, 
     and, for only the price of your time, you might hear the 
     National Symphony Orchestra interpreting Mussorgsky, the 
     Joffrey Ballet executing a pas de deux or the Shakespeare 
     Theatre Company soliloquizing from ``Twelfth Night.'' If 
     those offerings are too elevated for you, the Kennedy 
     Center's programmers also atrract a range of artists with 
     alternative styles, from folk musician Pete Seeger to punk 
     legend Patti Smith to vocalist and recent Grammy winner Norah 
     Jones.
       Tonight's performance will be especially memorable. Ten 
     years ago today, the Kennedy Center held its first free 
     performance on its Millennium State, and every night since, 
     tourists and locals alike--more than 3 million so far, by the 
     Kennedy Center's reckoning--have had the opportunity to enjoy 
     world-class performing arts, no expensive tickets required. 
     That's 41,000 artists from all 50 states and 50 countries to 
     date. At a time when metropolitan performing arts centers 
     around the country are coming up short on cash, it is 
     refreshing to see Washington's center prioritize free, 
     consistent and quality performances accessible to the general 
     public. The Kennedy Center's administrators should be proud 
     of this milestone.
       Equally impressive is the Millennium Stage's nightly 
     turnout, which programmers estimate at about 350 on average. 
     And crowds at bigger shows range from 500 to several 
     thousand, according to the Kennedy Center's Garth Ross, who 
     credits extensive community outreach for the success of the 
     Millennium Stage. It's what Kennedy Center President Michael 
     Kaiser calls great art well-marketed.
       Tonight's anniversary concert promises to be particularly 
     memorable. The National Symphony Orchestra, the Alvin Ailey 
     American Dance Theater and rocker Sufjan Stevens will 
     perform. Tickes for those capacity-filling acts are already 
     gone. But you can watch them on video screens in the Grand 
     Foyer, catch the webcast on the Kennedy Center's Web site or 
     show up any other day of the year to experience more free, 
     live art.
                                  ____


                [From the Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2007]

                  The Kennedy Center's Open Invitation

                        (By Richard Harrington)

       With apologies to Joni Mitchell, people have been playing 
     real good for free for the past decade on the Kennedy 
     Center's Millennium State. 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

[[Page S1573]]

     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 
     Millenium 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 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 resume 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.

[[Page S1574]]

       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.

                          ____________________