Welcome to The Kennedy Center

"I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit."
-President John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy's words resonate more strongly than ever for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the 21st century. The Center opened its doors on September 8, 1971, and celebrates its birthday each September with the free Open House Arts Festival. As always, the Center continues its efforts to fulfill President Kennedy's vision by producing and presenting an unmatched variety of theater and musicals, dance and ballet, orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, and folk music, and multi-media performances for all ages. Every year the institution that bears President Kennedy's name brings his dream to fruition, touching the lives of millions of people through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and around the world. The Center also nurtures new works and young artists, serving the nation as a leader in arts education and creating broadcasts, tours, and outreach programs.

Photos from the Open House Arts Festival

The Kennedy Center, located on 17 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America's living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation’s cultural center, presenting more than 2,000 performances each year. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach millions around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center's Performing Arts for Everyone outreach program, a free performance is offered 365 days a year including Thanksgiving and Christmas, on the Millennium Stage, at 6 p.m. featuring international, national and local artists; and a full day of free performances during the annual Open House Arts Festival. Since 1999, the Millennium Stage performances have been broadcast live over the Internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center’s website.

World premiere performances of Kennedy Center-commissioned works have been offered through an unprecedented commissioning program for new ballet and dance works. These works have been created by America's foremost choreographers—Paul Taylor, Lars Lubovich, and Merce Cunningham—for leading American dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, nearly a decade old, is the Kennedy Center's own ballet company. Created by legendary ballerina Suzanne Farrell, the critically acclaimed company's Balanchine Preservation Initiative presents George Balanchine's "lost treasures."

The Kennedy Center regularly presents world-class ballet companies such as American Ballet Theatre, The Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet, and The Mariinsky Ballet. The Kennedy Center also presented Ballet Across America, a celebration of ballet companies from across the country; and the successful Protégés: The International Ballet Festival, a biennial showcase recognizing rising ballet talent from the world’s leading ballet academies.

The Kennedy Center has co-produced new operas such as John Adams' Nixon in China, and brought such international opera companies as La Scala in its first-ever visit to the United States and Deutsche Opera Berlin in a complete "Ring" cycle. The Center is currently presenting the Kirov Opera and Ballet in annual performances as part of a ten-year engagement.

The KC Jazz Club opened in September 2002 in the Center's Roof Terrace level. Each season, the Kennedy Center features performances by today's hottest new talents and seasoned jazz veterans. Since 1994, Dr. Billy Taylor has been the Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center. Dr. Taylor's former NPR radio show was broadcast from the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in the 1990's. He is also a part of the Center's arts-based educational distance learning program called Performing Arts Series. In March 2007, the Center hosted Jazz In Our Time and awarded over 35 jazz luminaries with the Living Jazz Legend Award. The Kennedy Center Jazz season also includes Discovery Artists in the KC Jazz Club (featuring up-and-coming artists); Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead (annual jazz residency program); and, the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.

Arabesque - Arts of the Arab World The Kennedy Center presents annual festivals celebrating cities, countries and regions of the world: the San Francisco and Texas festivals; France Danse; Festival Australia; AmericArtes, (celebrating the arts of the Americas); The Tchaikovsky Festival; the Arts of Japan; the Kennedy Center African Odyssey; Art of the State: Israel at 50; Island: Arts from Ireland; Festival of China;UK/KC, celebrating the arts of the United Kingdom; Shakespeare in Washington; JAPAN! culture + hyperculture; and a festival of arts from the 22 countries in the League of Arab States entitled Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World. Annual festivals include The Prelude Festival; the Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. The Center has co-produced more than 150 new works of theater since opening its doors, including Tony-winning shows ranging from Annie in 1977 to A Few Good Men, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King and I, Titanic, Bounce, On Golden Pond, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. The Center also produced the Sondheim Celebration (six Stephen Sondheim musicals) in 2002, Tennessee Williams Explored (three of Williams' classic plays) in 2004, Mame in 2006, Carnival! in 2007, and August Wilson's 20th Century (Wilson’s complete ten-play cycle) in 2008. The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays has provided critical support in the development of 135 new theatrical works, resulting in premieres that included three Pulitzer Prize winners: Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles, Robert Schenkkan's The Kentucky Cycle, and Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

The National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center's artistic affiliate since 1987, has commissioned dozens of new works, among them Stephen Albert's RiverRun, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music; Morton Gould's StringMusic, also a Pulitzer Prize-winner; William Bolcolm's Sixth Symphony, and Michael Daughtery's UFO, a concerto for solo percussion and orchestra.

In addition to its regular season concerts, the National Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of its acclaimed Music Director Leonard Slatkin, presents a number of variously themed festivals each season. The annual American Residencies for the Kennedy Center is a program unique to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Center. The Center sends the Orchestra to a different state each year for an intensive period of performances and teaching encompassing full orchestral, chamber, and solo concerts, master classes and other teaching sessions. The Orchestra has given these residencies in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, South and North Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Wyoming, and Montana.

The Center reaches millions of people every year through its television programs. These include Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "The Kennedy Center Honors," broadcast annually on the CBS Network; "The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor," and other programs broadcast by public television.

In recent years, the Kennedy Center has dramatically expanded its education programs to reach young people, teachers, and families throughout the nation. Each year more than 7 million people nationwide take part in innovative and effective education programs initiated by the Center, including performances, lecture/demonstrations, open rehearsals, dance and music residencies, master classes, competitions for young actors and musicians, backstage tours, and workshops for teachers. These programs have become models for communities across the country, as educators and government leaders recognize what the Center has known for years: that the arts can unlock the door to learning for young people, fostering creativity, teaching discipline, improving self-esteem, and challenging students to think in new ways, as well as offering them experiences in the joy of the performing arts.

Through the work of its President, Michael M. Kaiser, the Kennedy Center has become a leader in arts management training. The Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute provides advanced training for young arts administrators and includes series of programs to help train others in the field. The Capacity Building Program for Culturally Specific Arts Organizations offers mentoring services to the leaders of African American, Latino, Asian American and Native American arts groups from across the United States. A similar program was instituted for arts organizations in the City of New York. Michael Kaiser also advises performing arts organizations around the world on building institutional strength through marketing, strategic planning and fundraising, and, in this capacity, is currently working with arts leaders in 60 countries. He has created artsmanager.org, a website that provides resources to arts managers around the world.

As part of its commitment to encourage the widest possible audience for the arts, the Kennedy Center has been in the forefront of making the performing arts accessible to persons with disabilities; the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Opera House, Family Theater, and recently renovated Eisenhower Theater, are national models for public accommodation.