Kevin Kellogg and Stewart Pearce

00:01 My name is Stuart Pearce. I'm 57 years old today's date is May 6th 2009. We're here at the storycorps booth at Lincoln Center, New York, New York, and I'm here with my partner Kevin Kellogg and I'm Kevin Kellogg. I'm 50. It is May 6th 2009 at Lincoln Center in New York, New York, and I'm talking with my partner.

00:32 Okay, Kevin, we're here at Lincoln Center and I know that Lincoln Center itself has been very important very meaningful to you and your life why is that tell us about will actually it it has been 4 for both of us when you think about it and in many many ways from me it started in my childhood where I sang in The Children's Chorus at New York City Opera just literally a stone's throw from here and that was just this wonderful part of growing up in New York for me I had been shy I had been I guess you could say it should have a Proto gay preteen and had been you know boy didn't like playing sports

01:32 Haven't quite found what I was comfortable with and being in the Opera even though I was just in the chorus, I gained such self-confidence. I mean, I would go out and there be three thousand people in the audience. This was in the Heyday of City Opera with Beverly Sills and Norman treigle and all these great people and I felt part of something I felt I had already been exposed to Opera that at home and on records, but suddenly I was able to go to the Opera all the time be in it and and form a wonderful group of friends and I wasn't a great singer by any means I had this very

02:22 Pure clear voice soprano but with very little volume to tell us what you were actually in the you know, I don't know what I was thinking of I audition with The Battle Hymn of the Republic interests and they they asked me to sing it again a little louder, please again a little louder, please and finally, I think they took me partly because I guess I sounded good and they figured if they could Surround Me by stronger voices. I bring a little quality if not quantity and I bet it was just it was wonderful and and and it really changed it changed my life really really found your place in the morning and tell us a bit about some of those great artists you work with. Well, I mean Beverly Sills everybody knows and and she was really

03:22 Take her her daughter and who is hearing-impaired and and couldn't sing joined us as what they call Super so good to do walk-on parts and because she was part of it. We all were in all the children were invited to sit in on rehearsals when Beverly Sills was rehearsing so that she wasn't singling out just her her daughter and it was and it was terrific and there was a wonderful base that not many people still know. He didn't have a huge career outside of New York named Norman treigle and he was terrific with kids and I did a lot of acting more than singing. I did a lot of walk-on Parts in and which which operas were you were you in with them, you know, all of them. I mean Carmen and Tasca and and I head to the special

04:22 Little acting roles in McCloud makropoulos Affair and something called Susanna and and really the one of thing spit Lincoln Center's also had a very important part for you for the last 30 plus years. Of course, I'd work at the Metropolitan Opera. I've been a member of the administrative staff. I've been there for 33 years and and currently in the Senior Management role as the assistant manager in charge of operations. So again, Opera has has been an important Cornerstone of my life and my career. How did you how did you find your way into the met some interesting? I worked in a music school the laundry School in Cambridge after I graduated from college work there for two years in the administration and

05:22 I helped solve a problem with with the mother of a student who who had been paying her bills, but somehow the the the Bursar never seem to have gotten the accounts correct? And I tracked it down and and help solve the mystery and and then the woman said will appear in New York to let me know. I'm I'm very influential at the Opera. And so when I move back to New York to start a career in arts Administration, I looked her up and she was indeed on the board of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and help get me an internship there. And then I was hired from The Guild and worked there for six years and then was transferred over to the med itself the parent company and I've been there for 27 years. Wow. Wow, that is so and it's so impressive in in any company and any job, but it it apply.

06:22 Is as wonderful and prestigious and special is the Met. That's that's really terrific. I remember you there was a special celebration at the Met for your 30th Anniversary there and they when they were giving the tribute they talked about different aspects of your time at the Met, but they also asked you what your most special memory of the match was and that was in fact the first time we saw each other and met why don't you tell us about it? It's really true. It's it's really true and it's one reason why we wanted to talk to each other today and in this way because it was 25 years ago this spring that we first

07:14 Sorry cheddar and it was in the audience at the Met. It was on March 9th and 1984 and and it was

07:27 What can I say? It was just it was it was like a it was out of a song. It was so special. I I saw you across that we were sitting upstairs in the in the less expensive and because it was a Gala performance and you were already working at the Met. It was the Premiere Performance of it. Very obscure opera called Francesca da Rimini with a terrific ass Placido Domingo and Renata Scotto, but you were in Black Tie I think because you were working at the Met the rest of us sitting in those cheap seats. Certainly, we're not in back time and I remember standing up at intermission and you stood up and you were wearing a red bow tie and a red cumberbund and we saw each other and when I say it was like a song it really was like some Enchanted

08:27 Thing where you see across a crowded room it it just we I think we both realized just knew from the time. We we really did. It was just the flash this this absolute recognition. And I'm now at the same time. We didn't really get together at that point. Why do you think that was so get you talk a little about that it it took you years and years. I think I think for a number of reasons. I think we were both very shy I think there is a stereotype perhaps of I don't know what gay life in New York is like or was like in the 1980s and I certainly was very very young and you were young as well. But I think we're both very shy and and I think that we we kept

09:27 Running into each other at the Opera in the neighborhood. I we both were living in the in the Upper West Side very close to one another and we kept saying hello. We kept smiling and just felt to Cheyenne in hindsight. I really think it's because I really have a belief that a everything works out for the best and if there's also a right time for everything and I don't think I was mature enough to settle my soul mate if that's the right way to put it about tell us about the time when we actually delete finally finally. Well, I we we've always both said that it was a great Act of Courage on my part after after years of saying hello Shiley in

10:27 You know not not filling up. I saw you sitting in a diner on 69th Street and Broadway that's still there. It's changed its name but the diner is still there and it has a big glass opening its head of an outdoor glass tin Cafe and you were living on 69th Street, which I didn't know and I was living on 69th street at the time and I saw you through the window you would just gone shopping at Tower Records, which also due dates everything and and I just thought you know, this is silly and I walked in and walked up to your table and said hello and something like it's time, you know for me to tell you my name and you were equally brave because you immediately said hi, and I'm Stewart end.

11:26 Like to come to the Opera with me and you invited me immediately to join you at the mat for The Magic Flute and at a specific date. I mean, there is no sort of so let's try to get together. I think we were both so bottled up waiting to meet one another for real that we and we went to the Opera and we really did get to know each other in that. And but at the same time by then I had actually matured enough that I was in a relationship. I was in a relationship with with with someone else and and it was a long-term relationship and then I certainly wasn't going to to leave that and so

12:25 We got to know each other but we we couldn't really wasn't again wasn't quite yet the moment. It wasn't the moment. It wasn't the time. Although we were very clear at the time of of what are potential was and how much we we really felt connected to each other and and I have to say that again bravery personal bravery sort of comes into play where I think

13:00 Well, I think I did the right thing and and I needed to take care of of this man at the time of in my partner at the time who was ill and you were very brave in in acknowledging that this was not the time for us to to really be together. So so then let's fast forward to a few years later maybe 7 a.m. Another another big gap of years. It's true and and by then I hit I have been widowed with a word and and we were both still living in New York. Not on the same street anymore, but on the upper west side and I had thought of you so so often and apparently you had Lou and and we bumped into each other at a couple of times on the bus at a drugstore and again,

14:00 We finally did a this is silly. Let's let's get together in and let's get together for

14:10 For dinner and we met at a local nothing little Indian restaurant and we sort of mapped out if you remember a way to

14:24 Transition to whatever it is. We were going to transition to that. We didn't want to Simply.

14:32 Oprah's a rush into each other's arms and I needed to make sure that I did it was the right time and we needed for the get reacquainted to make sure that it was inappropriate more than reacquainted. I think that to really to pick up that that sense of closeness but to see if that could still be into but also to see if it was the right time if enough time had passed for me that I was would be open to to start raining again. So tell me now about the moment when you're in your heart you said yes. Well again, it was here at Lincoln Center. It's just wonderful that we're doing this interview right at Lincoln Center because we had started seeing each other again, and we did actually started dating again and and all is going well and you

15:32 Because you have such a wonderful position at the Met you invited me to join you at opening night, and it was September 28th 1998 and it was a performance of Samson and Delilah with once again, you know, I never thought of it that fast we should raise a toast about to go to Mingo and I'm in this time. We were both in black tight and I have to say you you look terrific in thank you and it was during the Opera and not at intermission and I remember sitting there and wonderful Orchestra seats instead of up in the nosebleed and I turned and looked at you and just said to myself and to my heart and to you with

16:32 That you hearing it knowing it I said yes. Yes. Yes. This this really is it really is time and and this man who I have been been gazing at and thinking of and getting to know as a friend getting to know dating getting to know in in in so many different different than an intimate ways really really is a man for me and and after the performance we were walking on Broadway looking for a cab with everybody else from the Met and I'm and I told you and I told you that what what had happened for me during the Opera and that and that the answer was yes to the unspoken question. And now we've been together for 10 years exactly yet for 10 years. Tell me tell me your thoughts about those 10.

17:32 We're together Stewart. This really has been the best part of my life. It really really has an and you know, you've you've been just absolutely amazing. I mean first of all when I from the beginning when I did say, yes, you were so ready as well. It really really was the right time for both of us and we've been Inseparable really from that from that moment and and we've we've built a life together. We've built a family together of a friends and pets and we've we've traveled all over together and have these just amazing Journeys both literal and and personal and and we've not only shared a lot of wonderful performances together of Opera and ballet and theater and

18:32 Concerts but also realize that over the years when we were not together. We have been in a lot of the same performance absolutely amazing reshard. Those those memories very very true. And and you know, I also have to thank you because for your for your patience and fur for waiting for me for those just because they let you know, it really was the right time and I thank you for your courage and thank you. Thank you. So 25 years since we've met 10 years since we've been together as a couple and we're planning exactly a month from today to get married in Massachusetts. I know is that it's it's incredible. And actually we we are married and and in a year after we had this moment where we decided to to be together.

19:32 We honored that by exchanging vows and exchanging rings and that was September 1999. So that was literally another another Milestone to this year. And and we we've been renewing those vows all the time all the time. We actually we actually choose one or some of them to even say out loud to each other every week. It's really it's been a very special thing. So so I feel utterly and completely married to you, but now

20:17 Gay marriages legally possible in a number of states and we were waiting until the right time that theme again and we were waiting to make sure until it would be recognized in New York. It didn't have to be in New York. But we live here and to go off to Canada or wherever and have it not be recognized in New York wasn't something that was necessary for us or important for us. But now that a Massachusetts allows people from out-of-state to marry and that New York state has has said that has now recognizes gay marriage from elsewhere. It's the right time legally and I think I think it's a wonderful way of

21:13 Of celebrating what we have and these multiple anniversaries that happened to come in this in this year. And and I feel like it's not something that would change anything. It's not changing our relationship from a non-legal marriage to a legal marriage. I think of it as a marker. I think of it as an! And I also think that it's that it's important. I think if if it is possible for loving committed gay couples like ourselves to to be married then then we we should take advantage of that that we it is something that we can share and and and be recognized legally and to encourage other people to do so as well as his show

22:13 Unthreatened thing it is to show to show other people that you know, we are we're an old happily married couple or a middle-aged happily married couple already and it's it's illegal recognition of of that, you know, so is there anything else you'd like to say? Well, I think I'd like to tell anyone who who listens to this interview posterity that that that it is possible to find one soulmate that is really that I would have cried but it really is

22:57 Possible to mm2 to find your love and I feel that in our quiet way ours is one of the great love stories. I just like to say that I love you with all my heart Stewart, and I love you with all my heart. God bless. You. Can't forgot that she's doing