ALUMNUS PROFILE
for ROI, the MIT Sloan School alumni magazine and website

ECON AND PERFORMING ARTS
A powerful duo in the hands of alum Michael Kaiser

Michael Kaiser, SF' 77, spent much of his career drawing on his passion for music and economics to turn around fiscally troubled performing arts organizations.

Now President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he's also looking to take a leadership role in training arts managers to avoid the typical financial pitfalls.

The "Turnaround King"

Kaiser earned a reputation as "Turnaround King" through his work with organizations like The Kansas City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation.

One of his favorite stints was at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, which led to his working for then Cultural Arts Minister Winnie Mandela.

Before taking the helm of the Kennedy Center last winter, he spent two years in Great Britain working with Royal Opera House management to pull the venerable institution back from the edge of bankruptcy.

He oversaw the restoration, not just of the building, but of the Royal Opera's tarnished image. He also succeeded in eliminating the deficit and establishing an endowment.

The marriage of music and economics

Kaiser's attraction to the performing arts began at an early age. His grandmother's third husband, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic, often brought him to Saturday rehearsals, a ritual that spawned his love of classical music.

By the time he was in high school, he had decided to train as an opera singer and spent his senior year at the Manhattan School of Music.

From there he came to MIT, bringing his love of music with him. His father, he laughs, used to tell people his son went to MIT "to major in Gilbert and Sullivan."

Kaiser admits singing overshadowed academics his freshman year, recalling that he spent much of his time in the MIT chorus under the direction of John Oliver. Through Oliver, he studied under Phyllis Curtin for a summer at Tanglewood, singing with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Then came the moment of truth when he learned, in his own words, that he "simply wasn't good enough to pursue a serious career in opera." He enrolled at Brandeis starting his sophomore year, majored in economics, and buckled down, graduating magna cum laude.

He subsequently entered Sloan's one-year accelerated master's program, earning an M.S. in management. In spite of the hard-nosed practicality of his chosen field, he never strayed far from his first love: his Sloan thesis explored the economics of funding artistic organizations.

Econ and performing arts

It's a theme he has continued to focus on during his career. Describing himself as "passionate about training arts managers to be entrepreneurial," he notes that today's arts managers need to learn how to raise more money and manage resources more effectively.

He claims that most arts managers don't understand that you can't cut expenses by raising productivity. Why not? Because, as he phrases it, "It takes the same number of people to perform Don Giovanni today as it did 150 years ago."

He contends that the ability of an arts organization to function economically depends on understanding that concept—and on learning how to manage it.

A mission to educate

After he joined the Kennedy Center in the winter of 2001, Kaiser realized that the Center was in a good position to take a leadership role in training arts managers. With substantial funding from philanthropist Alberto W. Vilar, he established the Vilar Institute for Arts Management at the Kennedy Center.

Apart from his mission to educate, Kaiser aims to make the Kennedy Center a "national destination." This means, among other things, building the national reputations of Washington's opera and ballet companies.

Kaiser, who envisions a ten-year window, feels up to the task. "I'm at a wonderful point," he explains. "I've learned a lot by working with troubled organizations. It's taught me what it takes to run a healthy organization. Now I'm ready to manage one."