David J. Kitto is Vice President, Marketing and Sales at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where he oversees the advertising, booking, sales services, and marketing departments. Mr. Kitto directs the development of advertising campaigns and marketing strategies for the Kennedy Center’s diverse programming, which includes the National Symphony Orchestra, Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, jazz, theater, ballet, modern dance, festivals, the Millennium Stage, and special presentations reflecting world cultures, and educational programs. While at the Center, he has overseen the marketing campaigns for such comprehensive festivals as the Sondheim Celebration (2002), Festival of China (2005), Shakespeare in Washington (2007), Festival of Japan (2008) and Arabesque (2009). Mr. Kitto collaborates with Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser on Kennedy Center Board seminars as well as the Center’s Capacity Building initiative. He also teaches an annual course, Marketing the Arts, for each season’s Kennedy Center Fellowship Program.
Prior to joining the Kennedy Center, Mr. Kitto served as Marketing Manager at Carnegie Hall in New York City from 1983 until 1991 when he became the Director of Marketing. His areas of responsibility included directing the activities of the marketing and ticket operations department; managing an in-house advertising agency; licensing and product development; developing and launching its website, www.carnegiehall.org; serving as executive producer and co-creator of Carnegie Hall’s “American Popular Song Celebration;” supervising the marketing of the Hall’s renovation and reopening (1986), its 1990-1991 Centennial Season, and the launch of the Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall campaign (2000).
Mr. Kitto has served on the faculty of Brooklyn College as an Adjunct Professor, teaching a course entitled “Marketing for the Performing Arts.” In 1995, the college presented him with the college’s Performance Management Award for his outstanding service as a teacher.
Mr. Kitto is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BA in music and an MA in arts administration. He has served as a marketing consultant to the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra in Brooklyn, New York; the Regional Arts Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (opening December 2001); and the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario.
Kyung Sun Lee, University of Houston Moores School of Music
