Q&A with Jeff McDermott, Center for the Performing Arts CEO

Jeff McDermott went to Purdue University to play baseball, but he walked away with a political science degree, then went on to the University of Notre Dame Law School and became senior counsel at Krieg DeVault.

But it’s his involvement as a volunteer for The Center for the Performing Arts and The Great American Songbook Foundation in Carmel that led to his current position as the president and CEO of both organizations.

The gig started on an interim basis in 2016. But the following year, he officially got the job.

How does a pitcher-turned-lawyer find himself at the helm of a not-for-profit arts group?

I didn’t have much of an arts background. I played the trumpet a little bit in junior high, but that was about it. What interested me was that I was a resident of Carmel. I was the executive partner of a law firm in Carmel, and I did believe that this Center for the Performing Arts was a great thing for the community. So, I got involved for that reason. I think what I was surprised to find out was how much I enjoyed it—the people here, both the staff and the original board members.

We were all working on something here that was building arts in the community. We’re building an institution, which was very exciting to me.

What did you do to learn the ropes?

Some people have referred to it as sort of an “Undercover Boss” thing. I spent an afternoon in the box office. I read the ushers’ manual and came in one night in a white shirt, tie and black pants and scanned people in at the door. I’ve shown up in jeans and a black shirt with the rest of our production team.

One day … LeAnn Rimes’ team got here with their semi and started pulling things off. My team taught me how the sound is set up and took me up into the rafters and showed me how to focus spotlights. … I’m sure LeAnn’s team thought our team was excellent, except for the old guy who obviously didn’t know what he was doing.

Where do you feel you’ve left your fingerprints on the organization?

We were excellent on what I’ll call the “mission-driven” side. We’d brought in world-class artists in the area of classical and jazz and songbook. Where I felt like we weren’t strong enough was on some of the more commercially notable artists … the pop rock, country and comedy.

Most of our programming was done by our vice president of programming and our CEO. I asked that we change that up a little bit and we now have eight people in our programming team. Men and women, young and old, country fans and classical fans.

Where else in a single week can you … see Itzhak Perlman, one of the greatest violinists of our time, and then the next night see Weird Al Yankovic? And both of them were sellouts—two completely different audiences, but something for everybody.

What is the plan to find a naming-rights sponsor?

It’s going to be essentially a branding with a great corporate entity that shares our mission and values. We’re going to be selective. We can be selective. We’re not in a position where we have to do this. We’re going to make sure it’s the right partner, not just the highest-bidding partner or any partner. And if we don’t find the right partner, then we won’t do it.•