Deborah Rutter

Deborah F. Rutter is an American arts executive. She is the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Rutter is the first woman to head the Center, overseeing the center's operations in presenting theater, dance, music, awards, and the affiliated, National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. Earlier in her career, she was the president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2003–2014), an American orchestra commonly referred to as one of the "Big Five".

Rutter was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Encino, California. She is the daughter of attorney, Marshall Rutter. She played piano and violin and participated in youth orchestras in Los Angeles. To help out the youth orchestra, her mother took classes in orchestra management. Rutter graduated from Stanford University in 1978, where she studied music and German. For a year, she studied in Vienna and played there in a community orchestra. Applying for her first arts executive job, with a letter in German to its German born head, Ernest Fleischmann, she was hired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She worked there from 1978 to 1986. During that time, Rutter obtained a master's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.

In 1986, Rutter was hired to head the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where she remained until 1992. She then became the executive director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. In Seattle, she oversaw the construction of Benaroya Hall, the orchestra's new home. She successfully worked to increase the Seattle's visibility and endowment.

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