They Told Me Not to Take That Job

“Parochialism Prevailed”

Reynold Levy took over as the president of New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in March 2002 and held that post until January 31, 2014. While many people regard Lincoln Center as a place for the elite, Levy believes it belongs to working-class people. He sought to widen Lincoln Center’s offerings of subsidized tickets and public access to free performances.

When he arrived, Lincoln Center was a maelstrom of competing fiefdoms, all facing a billion-dollar redevelopment plan. Lincoln Center’s constituent members, its “resident artistic organizations,” are the Lincoln Center Institute, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, the Lincoln Center Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet.

Each performing arts organization is autonomous, but their leaders can confer with Lincoln Center’s leaders about their issues. Each constituent makes its own internal decisions, has major responsibility for its own fund raising...