 Welcome to the opening of the 58th annual APAP NYC Annual Conference. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the APAP NYC 2015 Conference Co-Chairs, Rachel Cohen, Kathy Edwards, and Daniel Bernard Rubin. Welcome, everyone, to the opening session of the 58th annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. And we'd also like to welcome the colleagues who joined us virtually thanks to the HowlRound TV live internet streaming service, which we are embarking on for the first time this year. Welcome. And a number of additional conference sessions will be accessible through HowlRound. So check the website to find out what. It's deeply meaningful for me to be here in the role of conference co-chair representing our presenter members. I began attending this conference over 15 years ago. The networks that come together at APAP NYC renew and energize my professional practice. This is where so many of us gather to be inspired by colleagues old and new and to see the work of artists who are shaping the future of our culture. Normally you see two conference co-chairs standing here, someone representing our presenter members, that would be me, and someone representing our artist management members, and that would be Rachel. But this year we added an artist representative to the mix. We have been so honored to have the input of the amazing creative talent that is DBR, also known as Daniel Bernard Rumein. Thank you, Kathy. And I wanted to thank each of you for being here, being present, and such an integral part of this year's conference. As the inaugural artist representative for the conference, I am so pleased to be able to share my wonderful experiences as an artist who sees APAP as an important part of my creative life. And indeed, I'm here to be of service to you and your needs over the days and the fun-filled nights of our conference. Rachel, what do you have to say about this ever important occasion? Thanks, Daniel. Actually, this is my 23rd conference, and I am thrilled to be here to share the inspiration, learning, networking, and all-around camaraderie that is only possible through an event like APAP NYC, which is why I find this year's theme together to be quite relevant. So much has already been written about our theme, but it's also important to remind everyone of the following. Number one, it takes a village to plan an event for close to 4,000 people, 4,000 people. And the three of us were thrilled to be working with individuals you see on the screen. A primary goal of this committee is to make certain that today, and over the next four days, there are many opportunities to share information and ideas that you can apply directly to your work. The more we learn collectively should make our field stronger for the future. We hope you will take advantage of the breadth and depth of professional development sessions that comprise this year's program. And of course, the dynamic keynote speakers that we'll be with each of us today. Kathy? In addition to reserving some time for the professional development program, we hope you will also take advantage of many opportunities to meet new colleagues, which could happen in the Expo Hall, or at a showcase performance, or in the Cyber Cafe. We know the next four days can seem daunting, especially to those of you who might be here for the first time. So please don't hesitate, introduce yourself to us or to any members of the conference committee, to the APAP staff, to the APAP board. Also, there is an APAP information lounge across from registration, and if you need any specific information or are feeling lost or need some encouragement, come by and we will help. Daniel? Thank you, Kathy. And finally, it goes without saying that it would not be so easy for us to come together every January without the year-round effort of a hard-working APAP staff. Yeah! Oh, they have been so responsive to our interests and concerns, and they themselves demonstrate the invaluable process of working together on the logistics, content, and management of this complicated event. We thank Mario, the staff, and especially the 100-plus volunteers who will be with us in the days ahead. Rachel? Here to share some of the highlights of what to expect in the days ahead, it is my pleasure to introduce the man with whom we spent so many hours with on the phone, APAP's director of programs and resources, Scott Stoner! Hello, mother. Hello, father. Here at APAP, my alma mater. It's the first day, the opening plenary. The marathon has just begun like every January. PD sessions begin tomorrow in the morning, 9 a.m. sharp. We will learn how to reach new markets from millennials to boomers. There are targets Sunday morning. There's a new track. It's called business fundamentals. Business practice in our industry depends on work, together, and as one family. Together at New York Hilton. Together at Sherrod to such short time to greet and meet and see it all beyond the expo hall. Metsha kucha, noon Saturday. What a line up with Mark Bermuthi. On Sunday morning, it's worth writing. Ira Glass will dance per chance. Oh, how exciting. Later Sunday, more things to choose. Showcases expo, more PD2. And what's new is global forums. A chance to share info ideas in tongues not foreign. Then on Monday, no time for sleeping. Five minutes to shine. The members meeting. The awards lunch. A time for stories. A time to recognize our peers. And yes, Midori. Together we'll all get through it. Together to Tuesday morning. We'll hear Angelica Joe. And on our way we'll go. Good night, mother. Good night, father. I must make room for chairman Jane Chu. But first I must make a proper welcome. He's coming now, my boss is here. Ladies and gentlemen, Mario Garcia Dorem. Now, that's actually the way Scott conducts himself at our staff meeting. So that is his bare practice. So hello, everyone. Thank you, Scott, so much. And congratulations, Scott, on such a terrific program. You are a true pro and we all benefit so much in your spirit of giving that you give to all of us here with your programs at APEP. So can I have a round of applause for Scott? I also want to thank the very hard work of our terrific conference committee. They are generous and dedicated souls who together with our hardworking staff make this annual convening possible. While in the Thanksgiving mode, please join me in expressing our sincere gratitude to the many sponsors who provide the critical resources we need to make an event this size so successful. I'm happy to report that 2015 marks our highest ever level of contributions from sponsors. That's great. Thank you. We have a lot to present this hour, but I'm going to take a moment to acknowledge each of these sponsors. First, thanks to support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Wallace Foundation. Our Diamond level sponsor this year is Live Nation. May I have a round of applause for them, please? Our Platinum level sponsor is StarVox Booking and our Gold level sponsors are IMG Artist and OPUS 3 Artist. And our... Listen, I do not mind acknowledging fantastic sponsors as much as possible. Our Silver level sponsors are Alan Harris Productions, ICM Partners, Kami, Canada Council for the Arts, and Patron Manager. And our Bronze sponsors are Ticketmaster, KMP, the China Arts and Education Groups, CAEG, FunClick, the Accidental Pervert, and the law firm Fitzpatrick, Chela, Harper, and Cento. So please, a round of applause for all of them. Great. So you can please scroll up. I'm using one of these for the first time, so bear with me. I am heartened to be here and welcome you all and thank you for making this annual pilgrimage to APAP each year. I would also like to welcome the newcomers who are joining us for the first time and I would actually like the newcomers to please stand up if you can. Newcomers, please stand up. Let me be the first to welcome you and tell you that this is a field that really supports and helps each other and offers knowledge so freely. So welcome. We are gathered here together at APAP NYC to do, hopefully, a lot of business, see and book amazing artists, experience the myriad offerings of this great city, to see old friends, meet new colleagues, learn something, and share knowledge that may help each of us in our work and life. And most importantly, have some fun. So again, thank each and every one of you for your good work and for making the effort in spending your hard-earned resources to join your APAP community here in New York City. So thank you all. And now I have the great pleasure of introducing someone who arrived on the scene in Washington just a few months ago, but who was chosen directly from the ranks of our presenting community to become the new chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 2006, Jane Chu served as a president and CEO of the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, overseeing a $413 million campaign to build the center. She has degrees in piano performance, music education, and piano pedagogy. Additionally, she has a master's degree in business administration and a PhD in philanthropic studies. And yes, she also has an honorary degree in music from the University of Missouri. Jane honed her skills as a community leader for over 16 years in Kansas City as an executive with the Community Foundation and other community development entities, which led her to her appointment to build a new Kauffman Center. Additionally, you should also know that I had the pleasure of having Jane as an NEA presenting grants panelist a number of times during my tenure at the NEA. I found her to be insightful, forthright, and absolutely charming. It is an extraordinary pleasure for me to introduce to you our new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Chairman Jane Chu. Thank you, Mario. I remember when Mario served as the NEA's director of presenting in artists' communities, and he gave me that opportunity to serve on his citizen panels for presenting. We are so proud to know you, Mario, for the work that you're doing to strengthen the field of performing arts presenting. And I also want to thank the entire team at APAP for inviting me to speak with you today. It is such an honor to be able to return to this conference that I attended for so many years as a performing arts presenter from Kansas City, and I see a number of my colleagues here. It's great to see you again. APAP is really important. It recognizes the unique issues and the nuances in the performing arts fields, and it provides resources and grant programs to help us in our own professional development. And by its very nature, APAP has a network where we can meet other arts professionals, artists, and managers, so that we can connect with each other and learn about how others address the same issues that we encounter. I've seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of your work, having just come from the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts six months ago, and I've seen firsthand what it's like to book those programs and handle cancellations, and I also understand the rush of excitement that comes from performing before a full house. And I also think that with the Performing Arts presenting, it's a group effort. A single performance requires the coordination of dozens, if not hundreds of people, from planning the programs to negotiating the contracts and booking accommodations, setting ticket prices, seeking sponsors and donors, and writing press releases and tuning the pianos and checking and rechecking the sound and lighting systems, and what if you're also presenting and producing? And how do you obtain the rights to creative works that have multiple owners? And what about presenting international artists? Those are questions sometimes just for a single performance. And so for those of you who have also been a part of an arts facility construction project, I know the amount of coordination that's required, and that was certainly the case when I was at the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, ensuring that the many voices involved eventually spoke together in concert. There was our board of directors who addressed the specifics within the budget, and there was a community relying on the center to honor the performing arts and strengthen their city. And all of these were views that needed to be heard. So one day I'd be talking with drywallers and the next day I'd be talking with oboe players, and some mornings I would wake up and I'd think to myself, I majored in piano in college and I'm talking about low-velocity ductwork. But I knew why I was talking about low-velocity ductwork because it contributed to the successful, sophisticated acoustics, and it elevated the performance environment that would bring out the best in artists and provide the quiet comfort for our patrons, and then opening night comes and you remember why the arts play such a powerful and oftentimes transformational role in our lives. Presenting plays a big role in facilitating that transformational power of the arts. Working to coordinate an opportunity to celebrate the arts, bring people together, bring communities together. The arts in many forms give us a common entry point to understand each other. They have this power to bridge opposing perspectives between organizations, across disciplines. They have a rare ability to diminish societal divisions rather than exacerbate them. And when the spotlights appear on stage, the differences among us can fade away and for a brief moment we are together. And for those of us here today, this energy is very familiar to all of us and it's likely a reason that we chose to pursue the work that we do. We have this opportunity through the excellent work that you do, whether you're creating art or facilitating its presentation, bringing audiences together, individuals and communities so that can be struck by that full power of the arts and so they can feel inspired by the music and the dance and acting and the setting. So they can have a window into other worlds or take pride as they watch the traditions of their cultures and other cultures played out on stage. The NEA recently held a convening about the impact of performances on communities called Beyond the Building. And you can find the video archive of the full day session online at arts.gov. But we're not talking just about the economic impact of the arts. That is, of course, a major and necessary consideration. But we don't rely solely on the box office to tell us whether we're doing a good job. And at their core, the arts are about people and communities and about building connections and fostering value and stoking creativity. I remember when I was first feeling that full strength of the arts myself. I was born in Oklahoma and I grew up in Arkansas, 11,000 miles away from China where my parents were born, each making their lives in the United States as young adults after leaving their home country during the Communist Revolution. And while they spoke Mandarin to each other at home, I spoke English. They like to eat bok choy and noodles. I like to eat potatoes and corn dogs. And so they wanted me to assimilate and have a good life, which included the arts. I beautifully took piano lessons, which I enjoyed, but it didn't really seem particularly significant at the time. But when I was nine, my father died of cancer, and that can be difficult for anybody to articulate the grief of losing a parent. But for a nine-year-old, this loss might entail words and emotions that have not been fully developed yet, and this was doubly compounded for me since my parents spoke Mandarin at home and I spoke English. The arts helped me deal with this grief, and music became my refuge, and I felt soothed when I played the piano, no matter what type of music I would play. Music gave me this language that allowed me to express what I felt, and although I often felt like I had one foot in each of my cultures, music gave me a world that was fully my own, and it joined together the different pieces of my life, and I felt as though I belonged. Not only can the arts bring audiences and communities together, they can bring the disparate pieces of our own selves together. The arts give us a sense of personal understanding, of healing, and of reflection, and they can smooth out the differences between us and also within us. At the National Endowment for the Arts, we want to provide all Americans with the opportunity to come together through the arts, and we want to make sure that people experience these moments of value and of connection and of creativity early and often, because these are the moments that give life meaning, and they remind us of what's important, and it's by creating a richer space for these moments that make our communities and, in turn, our country a richer and more rewarding place to live. We need to work together to support the field and spread the work that you are doing for the American public. So together we can come closer to building that dream where the magic that we feel when the lights go down is experienced by every American across the country in communities, large and small, urban and rural, in neighborhoods and colleges and community centers. I'd like for us to celebrate the creativity that is in this room today and the work that you're doing to provide opportunities for people to experience the arts, so if everybody could stand. And we have just come off a month of holidays, and I'd like to ask Scott Stoner, who did just a wonderful job earlier, and also Colleen Jennings-Rogensack and anybody employed by the National Endowment for the Arts if you're on staff, come join me on stage. We want to, we're coming off of holidays and I know that you think you're done with holiday carols, but just let's sing one more together, the Five Days of A-Pap. And this is sung to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas and it's a truncated version. And so be clever as you know the melody of the Twelve Days of Christmas and we'll be jumping around. So for example, if you sing five gold rings, you know the type of melody that you sing is the number five. And so let's get through the Twelve Days or the Five Days of A-Pap. Is everybody able to see the words somewhere? All right, here we go. On the first day of A-Pap, this is what I did see. Three keynote speakers, two conference sessions and a room key at the Hilton NYC. Pretty good, second. Day of A-Pap, this is what I did see. Five expo, four members meeting, three keynote speakers, two conference sessions and a room key at the Hilton NYC. Very good. On the third day of A-Pap, this is what I did see. Eight different than you, seven artists matter through six. Teals are making five expo boos. Four members meeting, three keynote speakers, two conference sessions and a room key at the Hilton NYC. We're getting there. On the fourth day of A-Pap, this is what I did see. Ten cell phones ringing, nine cups of coffee, eight different than you, seven artists matter through six. Artists singing five expo boos. Four members meeting, three keynote speakers, two conference sessions and a room key at the Hilton NYC. One more time. On the fifth day of A-Pap, this is what I did see. Twelve to five months, eleven showcase artists, ten cell phones ringing, nine cups of coffee, eight different than you, seven artists matter through six. Teals are making five expo boos. Four members meeting, three keynote speakers, two conference sessions and a room key at the Hilton NYC. You were fast, you were fast. Thank you everyone and happy new year. I was fully prepared to say something snarky and funny, but that was so sweet. You guys are great. Thank you so much. Thank you Jane. We are so grateful to have your creative and inspiring message and singing that song to launch this year's conference and what a perfect embodiment of together. And now we have another special treatise tour for you. A rare opportunity to hear from three young artists who are making a difference, bringing new audiences to the arts and their particular craft. We know that when it comes to creativity and the creative act, it is not always so easy to talk about it. So we naturally thought of someone whose livelihood is about just that. Exploring the nature and range of artistic expression with artists and bringing it to light through a public forum. Director Indira Itwaro is the executive producer and director of NPR Presents. She is also the founding executive producer of the Jerome L. Green performance space which hosts live broadcast and tapings of WNYC's radio shows. The center's mission is to galvanize conversations around local and international life, arts and politics in a transparent space between street and studio. Indira produced the American broadcast premiere of Their Eyes for Watching God, a radio drama to honor the 75th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston's book. She has advanced degrees in cultural studies and dance education, and her undergraduate degree was in classical flute performance. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our moderator for this evening's conversation, Dr. Indira Itwaro. Everyone, how are you? Wonderful, happy new year. I can't imagine anything more thrilling than sharing time and space at the beginning of the year with artists, whether you perform, create or present. This is absolutely thrilling. I want to set the tone and begin tonight's conversation with a quote by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Catherine Ann Porter. The arts do live continuously, and they live literally by faith. Their names and their shapes and their uses and their basic meanings survive unchanged in all that matters through times of interruption, diminishment and neglect. They cannot be destroyed altogether because they represent the substance of faith and the only reality. They are what we find to gain when the ruins are cleared away. And so it gives me great pleasure to welcome three extraordinary artists to the stage tonight, three extraordinary human beings and what I like to call Faithwalkers, who have joined us for tonight's conversation. Oscar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, has been quoted as saying, the fact that a kid who came from such incredibly damaging circumstances figured out how to respond to all of that with such huge spirit makes old guys like Spike Lee and me fall in love. Love was a word Mr. Lee also used. We love Lemon. He's a very funny, poignant storyteller and a unique voice from the greatest borough. Brooklyn, good looking. But, Mr. Lee added, I'd like to say my man Lemon is the only Puerto Rican I've met who can't play softball. Roberto Clemente would be ashamed. Lemon Anderson is a poet, a spoken word artist and actor. He first garnered national attention appearing in Russell Simmons' Deaf Poetry Jam on Broadway, which won a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event and netted Anderson a drama desk nomination for his writing. Over the past decade, he has performed in venues across the country from New York's New Eureka Poets Cafe to Hollywood's Kodak Theater. Please join me in welcoming Lemon Anderson to the stage. When she was 13 and said to be quite shy, this dancer followed the lead of her older sister Erika and tried out for the middle school drill team. She choreographed her own piece set to George Michael's I Want Your Sex. The closing move was a split head held high. The evening after the audition, she received a call saying that she had been named the captain of the squad of 60. At 32, Misty Copeland is ballet's first breakthrough star in decades. The only African American soloist with the American Ballet Theater, she's also featured in a video for the athletic wear company Under Armor that has been viewed more than 6 million times on YouTube. She was chosen to perform with Prince to star in Swan Lake this year and is a best selling author for her memoir Life in Motion and Unlikely Ballerina. All of this accomplished by someone who was told she shouldn't pursue ballet. Ladies and gentlemen, Misty Copeland. One writer wrote The Motion Picture Selma Its score comes from its subtlety of meeting racist fury with soft dignity as the jazz, soul and spiritual rhythms of an oppressed black nation join hands with a measured symphonic approach. Especially when detailing the movements effect on a troubled marriage through soft strings and piano. Yet this is also a soundtrack that truly knows when to raise its emotional fist to shattering orchestral effect announcing an impressive new voice on the major scoring scene. Jason Moran, pianist, composer and band leader minds a variety of musical styles to create adventurous genre crossing jazz performances. In original compositions for his ensemble The Bandwagon Moran uses the human voice as a starting point from a lot of structure translating speech patterns into a musical language. More recently Moran has collaborated with visual and performing artists and incorporated new technology and imaginative multimedia performances. MacArthur Fellows Jason Moran is now the artistic director for Jazz at the Lincoln Center. Please welcome Jason Moran. You must say Kennedy Center. And he's not reminding me of anything but that is the Kennedy Center ladies and gentlemen. Thank you Jason. Yes Happy New Year to all three of you and thank you so much for joining us for this conversation. An incredible group of artists we're here tonight with. And this year's theme is together which in modern language is used as an adverb. Let's create something together. Your organization is going to partner together with my organization. We're going to bring music and dance together. But the actual origin of the word together is two words. It's two and then gather G-A-T-H-E-R it is a verb. It means to act. And so we're going to approach tonight's conversation from that place and how these three extraordinary makers of art have been working creating and serving on the front lines to gather communities together new meanings, new audiences, ideas, bridge building and more. And we're going to begin with three artistic narratives. So the complexity of what's happening across the planet in many ways this is a defining moment in our times and a battle cry for us together on new and unique journeys because we as artists and presenters of art do not exist in a vacuum. I want to start this conversation with the question and I'd love to hear from each of you. How do you define your role as an artist in the 21st century, 2015 on this American soil? And Jason, I'll start with you and then we'll just go down the line. Great, great, great, great. I don't know, let's say I grew up in Houston, Texas in a great community with a great family a lot of support a lot of prodding a lot of opportunity in my neighborhood with my family and but at 18 I knew I needed to leave that space that New York City offered a different territory and terrain that I thought all the artists I admired were kind of wandering the streets up here all the great jazz musicians I loved were up in this city and I wanted to be among those people. I wanted to see them at the grocery store, you know and so I left home and I thought as I grew as a musician that the role of the artist was to actually leave the house a lot and to continually be outside of the space which you built which was so comfortable for you and within music and especially within improvised music what we rely on as improvisers is the relationship to respond directly to what you just said not even what you thought before you said it but what you just said and how I want to respond to that and in that changing of the dialogue within the music everything can change from playing one note to playing ten notes to not playing anything at all and all those options become kind of the options I think also for my audience as well is that when they come to these spaces to hear an improvised concert of music that the options are being laid out some are being acted upon and some aren't being and then it's up to us kind of as a collective unit when we're gathering right to be together and then consider when we leave the theater when we leave the space that we just experienced this performance in then how does that play out in our life as I get in my car do I want to get regular or really great a gasoline that's what I want us as artists to that's what I try to distribute to my people who come to see the show and when you talk about comfort zone that safe space talk about how does the audience play into that when you're sort of pushing beyond that comfort zone as an artist the beautiful part is you're really not supposed to know and I will never know as the artist I never know what anybody thinks about the music that because I'm so I don't know I'm so directed within how I have to make this that I never see the vision I never get to experience it it's one of the tragedies it's not really a tragedy to be an artist but it's a tragedy that you don't get to experience it but we depend on the people out there to give us the vision back and it's refracted because each one has a different viewpoint it's like flies we have millions of eyes that's our audience millions of eyes on you kind of giving you different viewpoints advantage points on the work that we create and that part is what I really depend on is then later after the show walking out into an audience and somebody saying wow that was really depressing what I just heard but okay and then the next person says that was really uplifting you know and then all of these you know all of that becomes the thing that I depend on with my audience Misty let me ask you the same question defining your role as an artist in the 21st century this complex landscape I would definitely say I think I represent what America is and what Americans should strive for and it's a beautiful success that was unlikely and I think that everything we're talking about bringing people together that's what art should be so that's how I approach my art and it was just kind of I was perplexed by this idea that ballet is so isolated in terms of the people that should be a part of it it's an art form so why shouldn't that be a place a space where everyone can come together and be a part of it and enjoy it so that's kind of just how I approach my art I think that everyone should be open to being a part of it and that truly is I think what Americans and America represents so I think that's what I am I'm a vessel to sharing the stories of so many African Americans that have come before me and succeeded and haven't really been given the platform to share their success you know there's this child on the train who dances for money show time, show time and the culture of that child is what I represent the American culture of that child is what I represent is Latino I wish I could dance salsa on stage as much as they would like me to I wish I could speak as much Spanish as they would like me to but unfortunately that didn't happen in my journey as an American storyteller I represent American Latinos who are fourth, fifth generation American Latinos who are assimilated to American and black culture I want to represent black culture especially in the northeast Latinos the Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Dominican style Latinos and to me that's the story I want to tell those are the characters I want to represent as well as even the fictional style characters of that world and I also want to represent that in the audience more importantly I want to see them in the audience I want to tell their stories I want to know that somebody is telling their stories in a live form and not just in television and I think the relationship between an audience and a live play is really special and there's a lot of healing and there's a lot of reflection in that and the theater again is the only place truly the only place where you can be scarred and really beautiful at the same time I think we need to see that about ourselves more often yeah Lemon has created an art piece this beautiful performance piece on video he just mentioned that he wrote it in one day is that right that's usually to turn around it was on demand it was on demand anyways it's really quite I think the right thing to continue to spark the conversation which I think art does best so we're going to show you and share an excerpt from Lemon Anderson's 2014 in review the future is in color let's take a look at that are you there from the beginning to behold the revolution unforeseen to bear witness to a monumental year in the history of the world like that of the year 2014 did you dance did you see the love did you cry did you watch democracy contradict itself and yet we danced on the front line with our fiancés partied with our familias to Beyonce and Mr. West and yet we were still there after the party was over on both sides of the Mexican border for the undocumented protest the early year brought Oscars and with the Pharrell brought happy songs and a pin with the black rose on behalf of brothers keepers sons and brothers of the concrete jungle where the black rose grows stay away to heaven below Jay-Z brought truths by shining out a number proposition number 47 because more schools means way less prisons more education better Oz healthy communities to live in more love more justice and justice shouldn't discriminate this year it became more legal to love whoever you want to love and so many more states for holy is the matrimony shouldn't be defined for truth to go pow to march for a last breath became the new state of mind rocking power leather label tees bringing more awareness to the world less tagging righteousness more tagging black life thank you so much for sharing that lemon when we spoke earlier about this conversation and you just talked about the healing that can happen the reciprocity between artists and audience but you use the word service in our conversation which I think the world can use more of talk about how we as artists as arts presenters can really activate service that does effect change I love teaching I love doing great work on stage and off stage I believe that both should be served well I love being in a classroom where I can teach a young person how to tell a story from the mentors that taught me and sharing that knowledge sharing the knowledge I've gotten from Oscar Eustace and Spike Lee I don't hold back I give away that information quickly to young people I want them to see mastery I want to be in the classroom I want to be in the neighborhood I want to be close to those people who feel like they don't belong in the theater and I want to tell them that there's a place here and I want to show them their story and I want them to be inspired it's not enough for us to book a school trip to the theater we have to go into the classroom we have to teach excellence we have to be that example in the classroom and then we show them what we do on stage and that's the double blow right you know it's like wow he plays at this level she performs at this level and she was there for me in the classroom I think there's something really special in that and there's a you know there's a a real relationship with the student who doesn't feel like they belong in those institutions or the person that doesn't feel like that's not a place for them because it's so intimidating you know the theater when you walk by the structure and the architecture of the theater it doesn't feel like you belong here but I'm trying my best to break that cycle of not coming into it that is the place for us to be now this video is on YouTube so I would encourage you to check it out but at the end of it you have a join the movement this call to the audience join the movement to uplift our young people of color now many arts organizations across the US are going after younger audiences this millennial audience and then more ethically diverse audiences I want to ask all of you you know I'd say for decades now there has been an aim and a goal to really think about ways that we can be inclusive to think about ways that we can represent this extraordinary exquisite diversity of our nation and our globe how do we get that right I think it depends on what it is you're talking about and what art form it is or whatever it is that we're trying to do I think again existing in the world that I do in the ballet world it's so separated and it's been isolated forever from its origin and I think it's been just extremely difficult to have someone that has a voice outside of the ballet world who can communicate to a diverse group and I think it's important for that underprivileged minority community to be represented in the theater in that space where they feel they don't belong so it's for ballet I feel like it's just now starting and I'm going to just I get a lot of criticism about why are you constantly talking about race you know you're a dancer you're a beautiful dancer you're not a beautiful black dancer I'm going to continue to say this until you know I can't speak anymore because until change happens you have to continue to talk about it because I sometimes think about where so born in 1975 thinking about where jazz music was in 1975 then 20 years earlier where it was in 1955 then 20 years earlier than that 1935 then 20 years earlier than that then 20 years earlier than that it's got a job in 1895 right so where the music continued to function in the society that it was that kind of fed it that gave it its nutrients right generation after generation so here we are in 2015 and there's music playing right now somewhere somebody's playing some standard some hotel lobby or some club in Japan you know people are playing the music and this is supposed to be tiring about it but somehow sometimes the stories get detached from the narrative of the music you know the narrative of its origin or even the narrative of the performer and part of I think the goal is to communicate with the audience that I'm trying to develop with the Kennedy Center or any venue that I'm working with is develop that way an audience that walks in and hears what could sound like to some people a bunch of noise happening all at the same time people just talking over each other and how do they know when to shut up and how do they know when to start that's what people think about jazz the people who laugh they believe that I'm joking and so there's a really it's really abstract it's very abstract to we as Americans supposedly I think promote abstraction abstract thinking how can they start to then make sense of the narrative that musicians for generations have told attached to their culture attached to the roots of the culture the freedom in the music coming from musicians like Max Roche who's fighting for freedom in the music Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday these people are not just singing a song it's not just a song to them and so how does an audience understand that it's more than what they think it is and how can they be inspired inspired to the point that when they leave the space that they then try to dig deeper or they ask someone who's walking out I didn't really understand what I just heard can you help me and hopefully the person says go back and hear the same band tomorrow night they're going to play something different and it's just an offer like we talk about making sure that people can continually come into the space it's not just the one time school visit you got to go 20 times during a season it's all these empty seats in most of these theaters half the time why are they empty besides price, besides money but why else are they empty and one thing I tried to do in San Francisco is I decided to put a skateboard ramp in a concert hall and my band played while these beautiful skateboarders skated back and forth this was amazing and you know who showed up? Parents of skaters so it was parents of kids who were 12 years old who loved skateboarding and the parents kind of like jazz but they also like skateboarding too and so I never anticipated that audience coming to a show but it was it was mind blowing to see that kind of intensity from an audience just stare and staring at people fall for an hour and a half not only they fall but they all got up and the metaphor was just it was so powerful that I thought oh this is beyond what I am imagining but that thing is the power that presenters have working with artists and finding funding for the audience and it really is a team a team effort and when you talk about Jason that next generation Misty there is a mantra in your book if you haven't had a chance to read Misty's life in motion this memoir it's just beautiful could you read just the short she knows I am asking her to read this is not a short passage this short passage because in essence it's a beautiful call to the next generation so I'll let you take it away outside the largest crowd I have ever seen waits prominent members of the African American community and trailblazers in the world of dance who have seldom received their due are here tonight Arthur Mitchell, Debra Lee, Star Jones Nelson George but I know I will also dance for those who have never seen a ballet who passed the Metropolitan Opera House but cannot imagine what goes on inside they may be poor like I have been insecure like I have been misunderstood like I have been I will be dancing for them too especially for them this is for the little brown girls I stand in the furthest upstage wing when the curtain rises there are flock of firebirds to enter the stage first after Yvonne the prince I can feel the anticipation rolling off the crowd as they pose and preen they expect me to be among them I take a deep breath the music starts and with it comes the cheers a great roar of love from the audience I realize in that moment that it doesn't matter what I do on the stage tonight they are all here for me with me here for who I am and what tonight represents I run on to the stage and feel myself transform as I approach center my flock parts leaving me to stand alone there is a brief second of silence before the audience erupts into applause once more clapping so loudly I can barely hear the music and so it begins Misty Copeland and Firebird this is for the little brown girls there is so much power in those seven words where you are bringing along the next generation you are not just moving forward in the ranks but you are bringing along the next generation talk about what that means not only for the next generation of artists but those who sit in the audience you see people who look like them it is something that I just the more I get out there and I speak to young kids especially with my book I have realized how powerful it is and something that I think a lot of children don't even realize when they are able to see someone that they can connect with that they can start to dream and there are no boundaries and it is so important to meet these older African American women at this point and they come to me and they say I wish I had someone like you when I was growing up who knows maybe I would have been the first Misty Copeland but that is the hardest thing for me is that something so simple is them seeing someone like them or just not being told no could have changed the path of their lives and something that you are saying I think it is so important to give back with what we are learning and our life experiences as artists and I know that in the dance world it is very different and it can be very selfish I think being an artist and I think you have to be at certain points to get to that place and I know so many incredible artists that don't want to give away their secrets of how they their ways of thinking are approaching a role and I definitely think the complete opposite way like the art form is not going to grow it is not going to get better it is not going to be a secret so that they can then build on that and be better so it is just important A childhood friend of yours is quoted as saying he took all that dirt and he just stood on top of it I just love that quote tell us from the very beginning how the art shaped your journey Interesting I was telling Misty earlier that I started off in ballet I was a street dancer I was discovered my mother didn't allow us to change the channel growing up so it stood on PBS and and I watched Masterpiece Theatre at a really young age in the projects in Brooklyn and I kind of knew these terms like demiplier and this guy came to my school looking for dancers for the Feld Ballet School and I knew the term demiplier and he said you're in and I trained at the Feld Ballet for 18 months and I learned a lot about art and grace and space and it was the first time I was out of the hood and I saw these sprung floors and endless mirrors and tall ceilings and it never left me no matter what I went through I lost my mother at a young age and women in my neighborhood if not across the world to HIV and AIDS and that's an American story if not an international story but I never left the world of art ever since that Feld Ballet School it just stood with me and even as a performer even on Deaf Poetry Jam on Broadway I told Russell Simmons I don't use microphone stands I'm a mover I use their body now that's what he said to the others so all the other slam poets were like what do you mean I'm used to this microphone stand what's going on lemon is doing it you guys got to do it and so I had to teach these guys how to use their bodies and these guys are like stiff and liberal lemon who hired you but I talked to them a lot about space and how does it look like from the stage but it was the arts never really left me and even telling my story when my friend said I stood on top of that dirt I might have stood on top of that dirt and pirouette it a little did a pirouette as a G though as a G I just want to see a I want to see a demi-plier oh right and these boots I'm saying let Misty be the judge of that no thank you lemon thank you I'm going to ask you that same question how you talk about it in the memoir how you came from challenging circumstances and the arts really became a defining part of your journey I was having this conversation it might have been yesterday I don't know when it was but I can't quite wrap my head around public schools wanting to take away the arts and I I feel like those people must have never been a part of an art form because my experience has just been that what I've learned and just taken from ballet has completely changed the way I approach my life so it's not just about you know for me I was a good student and I was a Virgo I am a Virgo I was a little bit crazy about being perfect all the time so even though I didn't enjoy being in school I was going to push myself to get good grades but I don't think I was actually learning and I don't think that it was the right form for me I needed a different approach and ballet was that for me and I'm constantly being asked oh you speak so well you're so poised and where did you go to college and I was like well I didn't but I feel like so much of what I learned is because of my art form and it's just made me a better communicator I'd never spoke before ballet I was just terrified and it just made me like a complete person so I feel like everyone needs to experience it at some point even if it's not something that you're going to make a career out of I just want to say I love going to the ballet like looking like this I really do I was at the Spoleto Festival two years ago and I went to see Ballet Hispaniacal and I was just so G sitting next to the old folks and I just do this like I'm watching the ballet like this that kind of look that's the beauty of the audience there is a space for us there at the ballet there's such a beauty in dance as well that we need to be in touch with it and it affects our work as artists when we go see dance sometimes you're looking to feel more empathetic as an artist go see ballet it'll do it to you so we're going to talk a little bit about this notion of genre busting and crossing disciplines but I want to go to what I think is the epitome of someone coming together with a new art form and that is Jason sound scoring Selma the motion picture film that's out certainly certainly coming together of multiple points of view and forms we're going to take a look at a trailer and then I want to dig a little bit into that creative process let's take a look I couldn't just stand by looks like an army out there and Jason you had an opportunity to work with the director and other musicians and I want to just ask about what are the nuggets because that's a huge scale project what are the nuggets you can take away that you've taken away that you could share with us on that coming together with other musicians and that collaborative creative process what just made it really work and made it click together sure each project that I embark upon is totally different so I try to start with clean slate but you know many years of my life here in New York were spent with my now wife Alicia Hall Moran and we spent time going to the Met Opera because she's a classical singer over and over again and watching narratives unfold by Puccini or Verdi or whomever over and over again see a new production let's go see Berg and so after years of watching this which I think is the great collaborative form opera where you have costume you have lights, you have movement you have text and you have an orchestra and you have characters each different and crazy and incestuous murderous and you know it's like the great drama and so when getting into film and working with Ava on this she was very conscious of where she stood in relationship to the history and to her place in kind of documenting this we're making this film she's from Compton, she's about 42 you know and so just even in that clip you hear public enemy the hip hop group public enemy over this history now that wasn't what the music was in 1964 you know but it's that kind of rub of generations kind of looking at a subject which is where we wanted to start our conversation from and so I started to send her music that was, that I thought embodies some of those forms so how does rural music meet the orchestra you know so how does the accordion come into the orchestra and tambourine into an orchestra you know and these things that I think is so much about black folk music here in America that have you know kind of been the bedrock of what jazz and blues is built off of then how do those things kind of find their way in navigating this very complex story not only about that time but about this time and where and how can we you know and she was pretty a great person to work with because not only would she accept the first idea but she was looking for your eighth idea and she would still come back to the first idea and say well this one was close but can you try it again and what I loved about that was it forced me to kind of go back to the table over and over again and you know and the film is the film the film is powerful, the film is tragic the film also leaves a lot of hope and what I wanted to have my orchestra do throughout the course of this two hours was by the time you enter this last speech that it's not resolved yet we don't resolve, I don't go to a powerful one chord I keep it on the edge you know it's very subtle what happens in the film but I think I was really honored and grateful to be a part of helping tell this story I'm going to open it up and then we're going to end with a question to our panel but we do want to hear from you there are speakers in this conversation and we do want to hear from you so I believe we have mics in the aisles and so if you have a question we do ask that you keep it brief so we can hear from as many people as possible but for Lemon, Misty or Jason if you'll just come to the mic do we have someone here okay if you'll just state your name and ask your question please my name is Rada Angelova I'm a dancer I recently read an interview with a ballet dancer and I don't remember her name and I don't remember who she danced for but she was retiring and what stood out to me is she said my husband always tells me I'm a ballet dancer third, I'm a dancer and I'm an artist first and so it kind of made a big impact on me this statement and so I would like to hear from the ballet dancer here do you agree with this statement and what's the difference between these three things thank you I think that's Wendy Whalen you might be talking about who just retired from New York City Ballet well she is all of those things and definitely an artist first and I think when you get to that level of being a principal dancer with an elite ballet company you have to be an artist first and foremost you get to that point where it's not about the technique that's no longer number one which most dancers are focused on, most ballet dancers you train every single day of your life for that technique to be effortless so that you can then become an artist and tell a story with an effortless technique that you're not even thinking about so I am a soloist and I am just now reaching that point where I am doing principal roles and I would say I'm an artist thank you do we have any more questions from our audience okay we have someone coming to the mic hi my name is Taylor Rambo I'm a student at the University of Miami Frost School of Music studying arts presenting as a musician I see that you draw on a huge range of musical experiences it's incredible to hear that your interests range everything from you know rap music and how it can be connected to you know today's population and all the way back to opera so how does that influence your music creation in that film and how does that synthesis and this could be for any of you how does that impact your artistry and how you take all kinds of different genre and you merge them together into what becomes your art class called application at conservatories because I think that's what say if I would look at a photo of Duke Ellington playing at the Savoy Ballroom and there's a band in full costume behind beautiful music stands with beautiful lights and 16 dancers in full costume in front of them and an audience full of well-dressed people and well-dressed dancers so that's a scene that's not just some music it's a scene sometimes when creating a piece I'm looking to make the scene the context for the conversation that the music is a part of and I think I've just fallen in love with so many artists of various disciplines who were able to manage this as well and always looking for the people maybe outside of the jazz world who are engaged by what jazz offers as a medium whether it's a visual artist who makes a very conceptual video about free jazz movement in the 1960s and they put it in a museum it's not in a jazz club it's in a museum in Germany and then it travels to Sydney, Australia and so where does the music sit the music doesn't just sit in these concert halls or these jazz festivals it sometimes sits in elevators it sits in many restaurants it sits in many clubs and so I'm always looking for where that relationship is the reason I did a jazz and skateboarding event was because when I was growing up skateboarding many skateboarding videos in the late early 90s and late 80s had jazz John Coltrane would be the music you would hear with this skateboarder skating up and down San Francisco so wait how did those two things meet and there are just many examples through history that I thought managed that so well that for myself to be considered an artist I was supposed to do that too not only to make a good product but inspire the person who shows up who's 12 or 13 and say you know I saw some crazy stuff last night but I could do something better than that yes please go do something better than what I did so I'm also looking for that just the way to kind of stir up the conversation so that people can go out and create something else does anyone else want to ask that question? I know the skateboard from the 80s and 90s I think people don't see that relationship with people of color as well that we have an American relationship to those cultures I think that we're just pinned into this corner and we have to speak this certain way but I know those films and I know that music really well and I know gleaming the cue and Natas Karpus and Vision Skateboards yes yes okay we'll take a final question from this side, thank you so my name is Kareem Barron from San Francisco and I feel like we're doing a better job about talking about diversity in audiences on this stage but I feel like we still have a long way to go to talk about how we empower people of color to move into curatorial positions senior administrative senior administrative positions so I'd like to hear what your thoughts are both on encouraging people of color to pursue this as a career but also to us as administrators to start identifying and helping to cultivate more people of color in these positions because I feel like we're lopsided if we're talking about diversity in the theater and on the stage but we're not talking about it with our staff I'll feel that and then pass it if that's fine you know I have at our CEO at NPR has this saying whoever's talking around the water cooler they're deciding the stories that are going to be told so I would say that it's really important that we begin to diversify those who are making decisions about which arts are being presented that we begin to diversify our arts administration field and I know as an executive producer I feel a responsibility as an African-American executive producer sometimes the only one in an organization sometimes the only one in a 90 year history of an organization to ensure that I'm mentoring and or hiring and or training those who are going to come after me so that the sensibility that the DNA of the curatorial vision really is exclusive and represents the full breath not only our nation but our world as well that's great so I love that question but I definitely want to say that we need more numbers it's about a lifestyle and I want to make this quick theater has to be a lifestyle for people of color so that people have to watch theater and say I want to be inspired to be an administrator or I want to be inspired not to be just the actor on stage but I like the lighting design that's my calling and we have to create more opportunities for theater to become a lifestyle so that there are more people watching theaters there are more people interested in working in theater until we see that we're not going to have those kind of numbers that we would like why because at the end of the day you are competing for a job and you want to hire the best and I'm not saying that there's not opportunities out there and there's not really talented administrators of color or diversity but there's not enough to compete and I see it because I work in this world we need more people to compete we need more people of color to compete we need more diversity because at the end of the day we want to do great jobs we just don't want the job we want to do great jobs that's it I don't want to hire someone who's not good at their job because we cool and so I need more people to compete for that job more people of color to compete for that role more people of color to compete for that writing for that, you know, and then it serves itself that makes lifestyle change and a choice that this is this is not just like oh, this person is popular right now so I'm going to go to the theater and see them but it's something that you continue to do but I think it's educating the parents educating teachers by so many African-American parents who are even teachers who are not of color and they say I don't know how to talk to this student who's black, I don't know how to tell them how to deal with their hair, how to get their hair to go into a classical bun and it's about educating everyone involved so that it creates an atmosphere where we are feeling that we are accepted and it's like a warm environment my final question for the three of you so we have this incredible room full of people who live and breathe and think and plan art all the time if you had a magic wand and we would do your bidding what would you have us to do 20 words or less no, no, not 20 words what would you have us to do give us money that's funny my mind might be attached to that because it was make everything free make everything free see here's the thing the hardest for me, I'm a playwright I follow the tradition of poet playwright, I'm a spoken word artist but I'm in the tradition of poet playwright which is Tennessee Williams T.S. Eliot August Wilson, I'm in that tradition in order to really write these plays, it takes time and sometimes we have to put in six or seven plays before we're discovered and by then it's 30 years down the road I think you should, if I had to put a magic wand as I say try to discover these writers at a younger age and develop them there and pay for their time there and develop them because the last thing you want to think about while you are trying to use your imagination to execute drama is your bills are there any final thoughts or words you haven't had a chance to share but you just have to get it out before our final few minutes and any final words you want to share with this audience I thought when you brought up the idea of about schools and their relationship to the arts this was where I started and I went from kindergarten through 12th grade through public schools learning about music the entire time and going to a performing and visual arts in Houston and really getting such an education that by the time I arrived here at Manhattan School of Music I was two years ahead of everybody else who showed up here that's how amazing the public education system was with music and if there's anything that we have a job to do as presenters is really engage our districts that have these schools that have these kids instruments whether it's two or 20 and really get everybody charged up about it because that is our future those are the future curators, those are the future directors dancers, musicians, everybody that's just it is the pivotal part of the fabric of this country and the world depends on the fabric of this country artistically it just continues to do that so if we just messing up our fabric with some crappy nylon there's no job to do to get silk right cotton right that's my thing I think that it's definitely again important to involve all levels when you're talking about getting people of color to be on the board of directors or be the people at the top it has to start from the bottom and I think it takes educating again educating our parents the parents of these children educating the teachers and just really giving these students an opportunity to be a part of every art form and if that's in public schools or at places where I started at the boys and girls clubs but it's just so important I think to start at a young age in order to really develop what our future holds in the arts lifestyle lifestyle lifestyle I truly believe that the future of the arts is going to have more diversity if we start to create a lifestyle that we're comfortable with going to the theater going into that space it's a very intimidating space and I believe that we should service our community by saying you are always welcome here we should always tell the community that they are always welcome here because it took the theater for me to say for me to see that I can be scarred it's okay not rap music it took the theater and so we need to welcome those scarred human beings those young children into a space where you know they can see I just want to end on this I didn't go to see into the woods that wasn't my first musical Sarafina was so you see that what happened that struggle can be danced on stage good for me we'll end with the book case of the Porter quote the arts they are what we find to gain when the ruins are cleared away ladies and gentlemen Lemon Anderson, Misty Copeland and Jason thank you very very much please another round of applause for that fantastic panel thank you I'm not ready for the reception but I want you to please be gracious and please welcome our sponsor our reception sponsors Ron Benzian CEO and Ben Whedon CEO of Live Nation theaters please welcome them so being an entertainment company we had prepared to sing our presentation to the tune of Ironman by Black Sabbath the other two presenters kind of stole our thunder so we're just going to show you a bunch of slides so here's Ron Benzian I'm CEO of Live Nation clubs and theater division and I'd like to welcome the APAP members as well as a lot of the agents and managers and family programs that work on a regular basis throughout the country today we'd like to do a couple of things we're going to talk about venue operations introduced to our company our capabilities talk about some of the programs we've been working with that are customized for the PAC community as well as introduced to our team so we'll try to get through this pretty quickly first I want to introduce the team that we have here to my rights Ben Whedon our COO and if our group could stand up real quick I'll do this pretty fast in no particular order Terry Hennessey as our director of theater programming Eric Berghammer EVP theater operations Margaret Holmes as our general manager at Westbury you guys can raise your hands whenever your name is called out Carl Schlossman is the EVP of our special events Laura Mulholland is the north east director of special events Jason Stone, RVP of New York John Striegel is the RVP of New York and then Michael Yorkie who is our president of our touring division first slide please thanks great the clubs and theater group is the largest a division or largest amount of venues under 5,000 capacity in the world we have about 83 venues under our control 56 of them we own and operate about 27 of them we book exclusively or manage about 80 people in Los Angeles that are focused on marketing, operations and booking and obviously we have regional teams throughout the country that are located where we have venues next slide due to our volume the significant experience we have in venue management and services we do over 12,000 shows a year about 8 million attendees another 1.6 million restaurant covers go through our restaurants thorough training programs that we share with our partners throughout the country best practices and SOP education throughout our portfolio as well a very robust in venue VIP and up-sale program and then national booking teams and operating support again back at the home office in Los Angeles as Ron said I'm Ben, I'm the COO amongst other things I oversee the talent booking and business development and I am picturing all of you naked so I apologize if that's awkward now you probably know as best as promoters we have the best in class national and regional booking teams as Ron mentioned 8,400 concerts 6.3 million fans we do 80 tours a year about 1200 shows and we have 6 national tour buyers located in Los Angeles and obviously 31 local and regional promoters across our portfolio which gives us daily interaction with talent agencies managers and other content producers across all genres whether traditional or non-traditional content and it kind of helps that we spend $80 million a year on talent as well next slide please on the special events and the rental side we've got a full service division run by Carl Schlossman we do 4,100 events annually another 1.6 million attendees gross revenues exceed 80 million and we co-promote and rent our venues to national and regional promoters god forbid I say AEG but also the other promoters out there whether it's Outback or NS2 and we've got a network of relationships with fortune 1,000 clients in marketing and advertising agencies around the country next slide please another area we feel we are best in class is in marketing we spend over $15 million in marketing annually around the country we have the largest live event marketing database in the world via ticketmaster.com and livenation.com one of the areas we really focus on and it's where marketing is going today is our digital marketing we have devoted teams of digital marketing teams to assist in Google and Facebook advertising as well as retargeting and prospecting expertise in traditional media of course we have over 50 marketers around the country we focus on a great deal especially our clubs and theaters is the community with dedicated teams for social management as well as digital agencies so that's why we're here today to talk about some of the things that we've been doing and based on our scale and national footprint we've been working with PACS around the country to augment their efforts and improve their content and operations we've developed a suite of products and opportunities that we'd like to present with you and so Ben will take you through those right now thank you we'll keep this quick and I appreciate there's a whole cross-section of the industry here there's agents and managers and promoters and producers and venues and obviously we're venue focused and promoter focused so hopefully some of this resonates with you but one option is the exclusive talent buying and marketing option we become the exclusive promoter for your venue and we utilize our marketing assets and our dietary data and our booking team to help sell more tickets and to help book more content as I said we work with national and regional promoters so we're not looking to cut out anybody in fact we're looking to actually grow the business hand in hand with your teams as well and your venue would immediately become part of our portfolio and all the discussions that we have today that's option number one that's the pretty simple one we're buying talent and we're helping market the next slide is more of the deeper relationship what we call the full service solution you know a lot of the packs out there a lot of the theaters are nonprofits that are operating at a loss and we really feel that with our best in class teams operating venues increasing revenues through upsells and VIP opportunities rental events and rentals helping increase subscriptions and maximizing concessions we can at the very least help reduce the loss that a lot of these 501c3s have on their books and God forbid make some money while we're at it for you guys as well and we do appreciate that there is not necessarily a one size fits all approach so hopefully we can just craft the partnership that works for you works for us and you know put more butts in seats sell more tickets and put more shows on your calendars and I just appreciate you guys time and thank you for letting us talk and I'm ready to head to the bar thank you very much thank you thank you very much live nation so I know you're ready to enjoy the reception when you see these representatives and all of the live nation group please thank them so enjoy and have a lovely lovely Friday evening thank you all