
Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter. Prior to the Kennedy Center, Rutter had leadership roles at several U.S. orchestras.
In Monday’s (1/27) Washington Post, Travis M. Andrews writes, “Deborah F. Rutter will step down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the end of 2025 after steering the arts institution for 11 years, through three presidents and a global pandemic. One of Washington’s most prominent arts leaders, she oversaw the center’s first physical expansion, sought to diversify the artforms it showcases and opened a permanent exhibit honoring its namesake: President John F. Kennedy. Rutter announced her decision to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees on Monday afternoon.” Kennedy Center Board Chair David M. Rubenstein “will … help recruit her successor and help them take on the role…. Across its several stages, the center presents more than 2,000 performances a year…. Rutter became the first woman to serve as president of the Kennedy Center in 2014, after spending 11 years as the president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra…. She also held leadership roles at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Seattle Symphony Orchestra, where she oversaw the construction of Benaroya Hall … [At the Kennedy Center,] she … hired Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the National Symphony Orchestra’s music director.”