Sour Note on Art Chief’s Free Voice Lessons
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WASHINGTON — National Endowment for the Arts Chairman John Frohnmayer said today he has been getting free singing lessons from an agency employee since coming to Washington in October and sees nothing wrong with it.
Frohnmayer said Arvid Knutsen, a special assistant on the agency’s staff, volunteered to give the lessons, which are given “at the end of the day or around the lunch hour.” He said he does not pay for the lessons.
Neither Knutsen nor Ann Colgrove, NEA’s director of policy, who provides piano accompaniment for the sessions, was coerced, Frohnmayer said. “We all have done it as friends.” Asked if he sees any impropriety in it, he said, “None whatsoever.”
Frohnmayer said there have been 12 to 15 of the sessions, usually in preparation for some event, such as in-house programs at the endowment or his recent appearance as a guest soloist with the Capitol Hill Choral Society.
Frohnmayer, an attorney from Portland, Ore., is an amateur singer. He is a lyric baritone.
The first account of the lessons appeared in The Washington Times on Thursday.
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