Meet Our Donors
Etta Fielek
Even over Zoom, Etta Fielek's energy is infectious. Because of the Kennedy Center's temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been nearly a year since Etta was last at the Center for performances of Samson and Delilah and Don Giovanni by Washington National Opera. However, the separation from live performing arts has done nothing to quiet Etta's passion—in fact, the time away has only reinforced the importance of ensuring a lasting legacy that reflects her values.
Etta grew up in a Polish family in the melting pot of Perth Amboy, NJ. According to Etta, Perth Amboy was not exactly a hub of artistic activity—"If music was on, it was the local Polka radio station," she says with a laugh. Etta and her sister were raised by their single mother after their father passed away when Etta was just two. She credits her lifelong love of the arts in part to her mother who, as a lover of musicals herself, introduced Etta to tap and piano lessons at a young age.
Etta attended her first Broadway production The Sound of Music when she was 11. "It was a big deal to get to see a show in New York, even though it was pretty close by," she fondly recalls. While attending high school, Etta would work the coat check at a local catering establishment most Saturday evenings, leaving Saturday afternoons free to take the bus to New York to get a standing room ticket to whatever show she could. "My mother raised us to be independent women, and she really encouraged me to explore the things I was interested in," Etta says.
That sense of independence and exploration led Etta to attend the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University. While at Syracuse, she studied abroad in Italy and was introduced to opera at the famed La Scala in Milan, igniting a love for a new genre. After a stint as a reporter in her early 20s, life led Etta to Washington, D.C. in January 1977, where she joined the man who was to become her husband.
She embarked upon a successful and rewarding career in Public Affairs and Media Relations. When asked about her husband's relationship with the arts, Etta smiles. "Well, he was a huge Wagnerian, I'd always come home to him playing Wagner," she says with a groan, "but the arts were really more of my thing." Her husband's passing 5 years ago was a turning point for Etta, and she re-subscribed to Washington National Opera and became a frequent attendee of the Kennedy Center's theater season.
A regular at the National Symphony Orchestra's coffee concerts, Etta says when it comes to composers, she prefers Mozart over Bach. However, her favorite composer currently is Beethoven, which she attributes to the National Symphony Orchestra's recent Beethoven at 250 celebration.
Etta has made an enduring legacy gift to the arts by naming the Kennedy Center as a beneficiary of her IRA. When asked about her motivation to make such a generous contribution, she says, "For me it was a natural progression; I wanted to do something solid and meaningful for a place that's given me so much contentment and joy." Etta is also well aware of the lasting impact her gift will have, adding that it was an easy decision for her to make, helping to ensure that others will have the opportunity to enjoy the arts just as much as she does.
All of us at the Kennedy Center send Etta our great thanks for all she has done to pay forward the joy of the performing arts by making the greatest gift of all: her legacy.