Personal Best: Judy
Drucker
For
40 years, Judy Drucker has been booking premier
classical music and dance performances throughout South
Florida. We’re talking superstars like Leonard
Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Itzhak
Perlman and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Much of the time
Drucker spent putting Miami on the global cultural map
was as the artistic director of the Concert Association
of Florida, the organization she founded in 1967. Anyone
who reads the local news knows that Drucker, 78, and the
Concert Association recently decided to part ways. In
short: She is now a cultural free agent, though with a
non-compete clause for Miami-Dade County, according to
the Miami Herald, which also noted that she
received a retirement package worth about half a million
dollars. Although Drucker is expected to remain as an
advisor (with a $2,500 monthly stipend, says the
Herald) to the CAF and though a gala
40th anniversary career tribute and celebration planned
for next season will, according to a Playbill Arts
article, go on, Drucker is not one to stand still.
Another newspaper reported recently that she had a
meeting regarding the potential for putting her stamp on
a new concert series at the Broward Center. The
SunPost held court with Miami’s straight-shooting
cultural grand dame to get a few of her personal Bests,
and Worsts.
How is Greater Miami’s cultural
arts and entertainment scene now compared to 40 years
ago?
I really can’t tell you. I haven’t
the faintest idea.
Is there anything about Greater
Miami from 40 years ago that you miss?
An educated audience.
What do you like best about
Greater Miami of today?
The diversity, the different
languages that are spoken and the different cultures
that come to visit. It makes Miami more exciting.
What do you like least about
Greater Miami today?
The traffic.
What was the best theatrical
performance held in the last year in South Florida?
I didn’t see one this year. I was
busy going to concerts.
What was the best dance
performance held in the last year in South Florida?
The American Ballet Theatre in
Swan Lake.
What was the best classical
music or opera held in the last year in South Florida?
Naturally I’m prejudiced. [The
Concert Association of Florida] has booked all the
orchestras from all over the world, including the
National Philharmonic of Russia and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra.
Any opinion on what is the best
art gallery in South Florida?
Certainly don’t. I think they are
all great.
What do you plan to do in the
future?
Stay in the music world and do
other projects.
— Interview by Erik Bojnansky
