The World of Artistic Management
By EDWARD GOLDSTEIN '79
arah Miller '91, a mezzo-soprano music major from Mt. Vernon, Iowa, had a great time at CC. Whether studying music theory or history, performing for the Collegium Musicum, the concert choir and the chamber choir, or playing the lead role of Patience in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, she just loved where she was and what she was doing.
Nearing graduation, however, Miller found herself wondering what to do next. She enjoyed performing but disliked the competitive, cutthroat nature of vocal contests. Rather than abandon her avocation, Miller came up with a perfect liberal arts solution to a problematic situation: she charted a new course that lead her into the complementary world of artistic management.
Her career choice brought her to Washington, D.C., where, for the past five years, she has had a number of challenging and rewarding jobs with the Washington Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
"I feel really fortunate that I was able to take my undergraduate music degree and love of music and the arts and find a way to support the arts," she says.
While at CC, Miller - inspired by mentors Don Jenkins and Marti Booth - fashioned an independent study course in performing arts management at the Colorado Opera Festival, held each summer at the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs.
"During that project, I learned about all aspects of opera management: public relations, fund-raising campaigns, ticketing and artistic administration. I realized that this would be a positive way to channel my interest in the arts," she says.
As luck would have it, Miller heard about internship possibilities at the Kennedy Center soon after CC's commencement. She applied and was hired in the center's public relations office during the summer of 1991.
The Kennedy Center - a stately, marbled shrine to our 34th president - is technically part of the National Park System. Its musical and theatrical productions, however, are managed as a private nonprofit institution.
As an intern, Miller's first task was to help out with publicity for the center's tribute to the state of Texas. She soon was promoted to a seasonal post for the fall music season of the Washington Opera, the resident opera company.
"That was quite a memorable experience," Miller recalls, "because the opera company's orchestra went on strike."
She found herself working nonstop to help keep the local press at bay, all the while wondering and worrying if she would soon be out of a job if the strike continued. Fortunately, the strike was short and Miller was offered a permanent job in the opera's development office.
As a newly-minted development officer, Miller was given immediate opportunities to apply what she knew about music performance to a host of ancillary tasks, including creating membership appeals, preparing grants for potential corporate and foundation sponsors and organizing the gala opera ball that is hosted each year by a different member of the Washington diplomatic community.
"One of my proudest accomplishments has been working with the company's education director to help develop and secure funding for a program that provides an opera-based curriculum for inner-city school children," she says. "This program provides a wonderful experience to the children. Opera is an art form that touches everything - literature, history, the visual arts and, of course, music and theater."
Since promoted to associate development director for major gifts, Miller is developing a new corporate sponsorship for the company. She also is helping to lay the groundwork for a multi-million dollar campaign to build a brand-new opera house at the downtown site of a former department store. These tasks, she says, have certainly been made easier with the arrival of Placido Domingo as the company's new artistic director.
"I have been fortunate to have had so many wonderful opportunities during my tenure with the Washington Opera," Miller says. "Fund raising is challenging but it is something I really love to do."