[Dixielandjazz] The "Business" side of Lincoln Center Jazz

[Steve barbone]

Jazz at Lincoln Center Executive Is Stepping Down After One Year

NY TIMES - By ROBIN POGREBIN - April 1, 2006

Derek E. Gordon is stepping down as president and chief executive of Jazz at
Lincoln Center after a little more than a year in the job and less than two
years after the organization moved to its snazzy new home in the Time Warner
Center at Columbus Circle.

He is leaving because the job proved too far removed from his artistic
interests, said Jazz at Lincoln Center's chairwoman, Lisa Schiff, in a
letter to the board yesterday.

"The size and scope of the administrative responsibilities associated with
this job have taken him away from what he loves best," Ms. Schiff wrote.

Mr. Gordon will become an adviser to the board, working on special projects,
effective immediately. "The things that really excite me are being involved
in artistic partnerships and collaborations and developing those programs,"
he said in a telephone interview. "The ongoing day-to-day of making the
building run leaves so little time to do the things I had really hoped would
be a larger percentage of the work here."

Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director, said he understood Mr. Gordon's
decision to leave. "I'm not so much sorry to see him go as I'm happy to see
him do what he wants to do," he said.

Mr. Gordon's interest in the artistic side of the operation might have
seemed to create a potential conflict with Mr. Marsalis. But the two men
described their relationship as collegial and collaborative. "We would
discuss things," Mr. Marsalis said. "It was not like a territorial approach.
We all have a say."

A trained baritone from Louisiana, Mr. Gordon spent 12 years as senior vice
president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, where he was responsible for the overall planning, management
and supervision of programs and operations in jazz, education and outreach.
Mr. Gordon joined Jazz at Lincoln Center in July 2004 as executive director
and became chief executive and president in January 2005.

Ms. Schiff said she was unsure whether Mr. Gordon would be succeeded; for
now, management of the institution will be shared by Mr. Marsalis and
Katherine E. Brown, the executive director. "This is a very complicated
operation we're running," Ms. Schiff said, "and the skill set we need is
perhaps different from what we thought we needed."

The move to Columbus Circle has brought dramatic changes to Jazz at Lincoln
Center. The organization had to raise $131 million to build its home and now
has to raise the money to run it, meeting annual operating costs that have
mushroomed to $35 million from $12 million. In addition to 10 shows a week
by headline groups in the 1,200-seat Rose Theater and the smaller Allen Room
overlooking Central Park South, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents two or three
performances a night in Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola 365 days a year, runs the
Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame and offers extensive educational programs.

The center is generally considered a success, with shows that average 70
percent capacity and positive reviews for the acoustics and aesthetics. But
the period of adjustment ‹ figuring out how to handle the new higher
overhead, how to manage the programming and maintenance of three performance
spaces, how to set ticket prices low enough to draw a varied crowd but high
enough to pay the bills ‹ has also been difficult for the center management.

"We're having growing pains; I'm not going to lie to you," Ms. Schiff said
in an interview yesterday. "We're in a different business than we ever were
before. The things that go into running a facility ‹ we're having to learn
that."