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Quest Means Business

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS Live from Lincoln Center; SpaceX Goes Public with Historic Offering of Stock; Trump Administration Outlines Prospective Agreement with Iran; Opening Ceremonies Taking Place In Canada And United States Today; New York Philharmonic CEO: Our Orchestra Is 106 Members; Ukraine Opera Tackles Heartbreak Of Stolen Children. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired June 12, 2026 - 16:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:34]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": The closing bell has been ringing on Wall Street. Trading has come to an end. You've

got not only Wall Street in terms of the Dow. You've got the NASDAQ, because of course, today is the day that SpaceX launched on the stock

exchange, the IPO, and we will get to all of those details; otherwise, we have the Dow the NASDAQ and the S&P all higher over the course of the day.

No records as far as I am aware. We will get into the details.

Those are the markets and the events that you and I will be chewing over, over the course of the day.

Shares in SpaceX have soared on their first day of trade, closing at around $160.00 a share. The exact details in a moment or five.

World Cup action is underway. The co-host, Canada is playing its first match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, we will have details on that.

And of course, it is the cultural core of the Big Apple. It is home to the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and many more.

We are tonight at the Lincoln Center. You will hear the chief executive. It is the start of our Summer Fridays, an annual tradition live from Lincoln

Center on Friday, Friday Summer, June the 12th. I am Richard quest and yes, I mean business.

Good evening.

And so begins our yearly tradition like no other. It is the Summer Fridays and our first Summer Fridays show of the season.

Throughout the summer, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS will be airing from various places, landmarks, if you will, across New York. The goal is very simple.

On Fridays in the summer, wherever you are, we sort of go easy on ourselves. We take it a little bit easy. People go home early in the

afternoon.

Well, tonight we are the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts.

The absolute heart of New York's cultural scene. It is a massive 16-acre campus that's played a starring role in reconstructing the Upper West Side

in the 60s. It is home to world class institutions from the Met Opera to Juilliard, and on tonight's program, you're going to see Matias

Tarnopolosky, the head of the New York Philharmonic. You're also going to have Lincoln Center President Mariko Silver, and we will wrap it all up

with a discussion on jazz music.

All of that in just a moment. It is a Summer Friday.

First, now to our business agenda -- SpaceX. SpaceX indeed, it has just joined the ranks of the world's most valuable companies, and in doing so,

after the biggest IPO in history.

The stock closed at $161.00 a share. That's a gain of more than 19 percent from the original offer price of $135.00. We always knew it was going to

pop, but the pop has been a little more pop than bristles. The IPO raised a whopping $75 billion for Elon Musk's rocket and A.I. company.

The money didn't just come from professional investors, retail traders were very active as well, Robinhood says it experienced record breaking traffic

to try and get in on the act. Elon Musk was already the world's richest man. Now, he has another distinction. He is the world's first trillionaire,

on paper at least, and he had the honor of ringing the NASDAQ bell from SpaceX's headquarters in Texas.

Joining me now, Clare Duffy is with me to put this into perspective.

So, what do we make of what we saw and how it went?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Well, Richard, this was a record breaking IPO in a number of respects. As you said, this was the largest IPO in

history, three times larger than the Saudi Aramco IPO back in 2019, raising $75 billion, and they also have a greenshoe option that could allow them to

raise an additional $11 billion by releasing additional shares.

We also saw record breaking retail investor interest. We saw a number of these platforms say that they had more retail investors involved.

QUEST: Why, Clare? Why?

[16:05:06 ]

DUFFY: Well, because I think the hype around SpaceX was so significant. This is a brand that everyone is familiar with. You've got the aura of Elon

Musk attached to this company.

They have done some pretty incredible things, sending rockets up into space that can land back on Earth, but the next big business direction for this

company is artificial intelligence, and I think that is where we get into real questions about the path to profitability.

QUEST: So Starlink is already up there with the hundreds of satellites, and it is the backbone of communications in many parts of the world. Launching

satellites, launching rockets -- it is their core business. But none of those are profitable. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Starlink is profitable. The rockets

are getting there.

So where is the money going to come from?

DUFFY: Well, so that is the big question. This company lost around $4.9 billion last year. Just in the first quarter of this year, it lost $4.3

billion, and the reason for that is, it is investing huge amounts of money in building out this A.I. business. Really, the business of becoming a data

center provider, a computing provider to other A.I. companies, but that is very expensive. That is where you have the challenge.

The company has said they have a $28.5 trillion potential total addressable market. They see 92 percent of that coming from A.I.

QUEST: But this all based on data centers in space.

DUFFY: Exactly. The idea is that by sending data centers up into space, you could have free energy from the sun, free cooling because it is cold in

space. The challenge is that that is a really ambitious business and the question of whether I think we've continued to talk about this question of

whether the computing demand is going to continue to be as big and as growing as we've seen it be in the past few years.

SpaceX already has deals with Anthropic and Google, who are spending about a billion dollars a month each to get computing power from SpaceX. The

question is whether they can continue building on that business enough to pay for sending data centers.

QUEST: Who is next? Which company is next?

DUFFY: I think Anthropic is next. Obviously, we are waiting for both Anthropic and OpenAI, but I think Anthropic has a clearer path to

profitability. And there is probably going to be more investor hype around that company.

DUFFY: You've got that IPO ding for the day. Thank you very much indeed. Clare Duffy joining us down here.

With its blockbuster IPO, SpaceX has a market value of more than $2 trillion. That's 12 zeros if you're counting them. It makes it the sixth

largest publicly traded company, U.S. traded company behind NVIDIA, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon and will turn about 4,000 current and

former SpaceX employees into freshly minted millionaires.

But SpaceX's chief operating officer has told CNBC she is not only focused on the here and now, she is focused on attracting investors who want to

stick with SpaceX for the long term.

Now, Peter Diamandis, I should say, Peter is founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation.

What do you make of what happened today? The IPO is successful, a very respectable premium on the launch price, but now of course, Peter, they've

actually got to prove -- it is about proving that it is worth it.

PETER DIAMANDIS, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, XPRIZE FOUNDATION: Yes, I mean, it is an incredible day today. The challenge people are having is

they are trying to price SpaceX like a normal tech company. It is not a normal tech company. It is three different parts of incredible industries

converging. It is the launch monopoly and they are fundamentally a monopoly, you know, providing cost to launch, today 25 times cheaper than

anybody else.

With Starship, anywhere from a hundred to 500 times cheaper. It is the Starlink cash engine and they have, you know, over 10,000 satellites on

orbit, not a few hundred and then what they are building in the A.I. frontier, their A.I. frontier lab in a hyperscaler. And, you know, I like

to say, Richard, everything we hold of value on Earth -- metals, minerals, energy, real estate is in near infinite quantities in space. And, you know,

SpaceX is building the railroads that are going to open that incredible frontier.

QUEST: The fascinating part is that you are buying into, and this is not a criticism per se, but you are buying into an Elon Musk venture. I always

remember being told when anybody used to criticize News Corp and the Murdoch shareholding structure, people said, everybody knows what you're

buying, you're buying Murdoch.

And again, in this case, everybody knows what you're buying. You're buying Musk.

DIAMANDIS: You are and that's the reason I invested early on. I think that's the reason that all the venture capitalists and family offices and

sovereign wealth funds and Larry Page at Google all invested in Elon because he has got an incredible track record.

[16:10:12]

You know, the best prediction capability of what is going to happen in the future is what has happened in the past.

And Elon may not always be right on the timing, but he has consistently always come through, and what he is building right now is the biggest

engines on the planet. Yes.

QUEST: Peter, do you think this is a stock -- you know, forgive the phrase, but I use the cliche because it does tell us what I mean. Do you think this

is a stock for widows and orphans, as they used to say?

DIAMANDIS: I think this is a generational stock. You know, over the last decade, whenever I would have any free capital, I would put it into Bitcoin

and have, you know, huddled that Bitcoin, held it for the long term.

Going forward, I am going to flip that money into SpaceX. This is a company that is charting out the next not five or 10 years, it is charting out the

next century. I think they have a massive lead in all of these markets, on Starlink building out, you know, far beyond what Amazon is building with

Leo. With rockets, no one is close; not by, by a long shot, no one is close.

And in the orbital data centers, as a hyperscaler, they've already, you know, built -- you've seen the numbers $11 billion a year from Google

buying compute and Anthropic buying huge compute and when -- you know, Elon is going to be the first and likely the massive majority orbital compute

and I think there is a massive hunger for that.

QUEST: So forgive me being old fashioned, but at some point, public companies have to make money. They have to be profitable. They don't

necessarily have to pay a dividend.

DIAMANDIS: I agree.

QUEST: They don't have to necessarily pay a dividend -- they don't have necessarily pay a dividend, but there has to be a shareholder return and at

the moment, it would seem that shareholder return is primarily going to be in capital appreciation of the stock.

DIAMANDIS: Well, you remember the early days of Amazon when Jeff Bezos put out his famous letter saying, if you're investing in me, you know, for

profits, don't. I am going to be reinvesting my capital to build Amazon to where it is. I think we are seeing the same thing here. You know, Starlink

is profitable as we head towards the next generation of Starlink satellites that provide cell telephony to, you know, probably anywhere from two to

five billion humans on the planet. We are going to see a huge spike in capability there.

The launch industry with Starship is going to get profitable and don't forget, they are a customer to their own vehicles to build Starlink

constellations, and then the biggest return is Intelligence.

QUEST: That is true. That is very true.

DIAMANDIS: Yes.

QUEST: I am grateful that you joined us tonight. We will talk more as this stock now becomes a member of the public exchanges, and of course, matures

in its way.

Thank you very much, sir, for joining us. Very grateful for you out of Los Angeles.

DIAMANDIS: Amazing day! Thank you.

QUEST: New optimism tonight that the United States can close in on a prospective agreement with Iran to extend the ceasefire and reopen the

Strait of Hormuz and begin to bring about the end of the war.

How do we see this? Iran's Foreign Minister even says today that an agreement has never been closer and a senior Trump administration official

also says the following. He says: We have gotten the language in a place that we feel good about, where the Iranians have actually said, okay, we

can agree to that, but there are still details to be worked out.

Alayna Treene is at The White House.

Paul Krugman, yesterday, somewhat -- he was being somewhat tongue in cheek. He said to me, you know, this is the 38th end of the war or 39th end of the

war that we had heard from Donald Trump, but this does seem to have more legs, if you will, than the previous.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Absolutely. I think part of that is because you're not just hearing this now, Richard, from the U.S. side

and from Trump administration officials, you're hearing it from the Pakistani Prime Minister, for example, someone who has been crucial in

mediating these negotiations.

He said today that he could agree that a deal, a final agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and that he is working with all parties to

ensure that it can be signed. He said he had never seen the deal be as close as it is now.

You also heard similar language from the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, who said that they have never been closer to an agreement,

something actually the president, President Donald Trump had shared himself.

[16:15:09]

Look, I think from all the conversations I have been having today, Richard, with people here at The White House, throughout the administration, yes,

there has long been optimism.

You've heard them say, as you mentioned, 39 times, that a deal was close, but this time they are actually walking through the specifics of what is in

this Memorandum of Understanding and also making these preparations to go to Europe to sign it, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Of course, always need that skepticism that until those names and those signatures are on the paper, things could fall apart, but they are feeling

very confident at this point.

QUEST: Sure. You know, but the thing is, Donald Trump has been very clear. He doesn't want to bog himself down in the JCPOA, the last agreement with

the detail and all of that. But, Alayna, at some point, I mean, yes, you can stop the war. You can have the ceasefire. But to get a longer lasting

agreement, they are going to have to dot I's, cross T's and bog themselves down in detail.

TREENE: Oh, absolutely. I mean, so this Memorandum of Understanding, you know, we can walk through the main points, but they are pretty broad and

they do mostly achieve the objectives we know that the President was seeking out, but again, very broad.

I think the more important thing is going to be, you know, they always say the devils in the details. This Memorandum of Understanding, if it is

signed, it would trigger a 60-day highly technical negotiation, essentially, that is where the specifics of how do you implement these

things about dismantling Iran's nuclear program, about reopening the street, about going in to retrieve their highly enriched uranium.

All of the specifics about implementation and enforcement, a lot of that still needs to be worked out, a lot of those specifics would not happen

until after this first phase is done.

So I think that is an important thing to note here. You know, this deal is almost a deal to make another deal down the line.

One other big thing, I think, to your point about the JCPOA, I mean, it is so clear, I know that the President has been telling advisers he wants to

ensure that this is viewed -- any sort of agreement he signs is viewed as much stronger than that Obama-era deal is going to be about monetary

compensation.

You know, there has been so many people, particularly in the President's closest circle of supporters, who have criticized the amount of cash that

was handed over to the Iranians back then.

They are likely going to need to -- you know, they are going to need to compensate Iran at some point, but what these officials are saying is that

there will be no handing over of money, no financial compensation, until Iran begins to comply with the provisions outlined in this agreement. So we

will see.

QUEST: Alayna, I am very grateful. Thank you very much -- at The White House. I am grateful for your time. Hot and sunny afternoon.

This afternoon we are -- it is our first Summer Friday. We are at the Lincoln Center. This is the Rose Building and it is absolutely stonking hot

out there. I promise you this. But the Lincoln Center itself, just take a look. It is all behind. Way over.

When we come back after the break, we are going to go into all the different buildings. We will show you what it is all about, and we will

explain how the Lincoln Center all came to be around.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. It is a Summer Fri-yay! Yes!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:08]

QUEST: It is a Summer Friday and it is the Lincoln Center. We are so grateful that they kindly agreed to allow us to interlope for our first

Summer Friday of 2026, and I can promise you out, there it is stonkingly hot, hundred degrees or so in old money and it is also threatening some

thunderstorms, which is why we are inside.

The development of this fantastic cultural institution, the Lincoln Center, it dates back to the 1950s. At the time, this area was already a thriving

arts hub. However, the neighborhood was known as San Juan Hill, and it was home to a diverse working class as well as theaters, dance halls and

cinemas -- all that was then.

The area was eventually chosen for urban renewal, and indeed, when it happened, it was not without controversy. Oh no, indeed!

The project went forward and it has given us what we've got today, which is the cultural epicenter we know.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST (voice over): It is the sound from the courtyard of Lincoln Center on a typical night. It is about as close to a cultural crossroads as you'll

ever find in New York. There is no place quite like it.

Running Lincoln Center is a bit like conducting an orchestra. It is Mariko Silver's job to make sure everyone performs in perfect harmony.

MARIKO SILVER, CEO, LINCOLN CENTER: When you walk across the plaza and you walk by that fountain, you can't help but have a moment. It is pretty

extraordinary. It lifts your heart. It lifts your spirits.

QUEST (voice over): Nowhere in the world are there this many world famous cultural institutions housed in one place.

QUEST (on camera): You've got the Philharmonic over there, an opera over here, theater over yonder and a ballet in the corner. It is the size and

scale of Lincoln Center that is truly awe-inspiring and the realization that because of location, cost and politics, you probably couldn't build

Lincoln Center today.

QUEST (voice over): The Lincoln Center was conceived by two formidable New Yorkers. The philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller III, and the urban

planner, Robert Moses.

SILVER: Sixteen acres in the middle of New York City, not devoted to commerce but devoted to culture because New York needs that anchor, it

needs that room to breathe.

QUEST (voice over): The plan faced criticism right from the outset.

SILVER: When Lincoln Center was created, a wonderful neighborhood called San Juan Hill was razed to build this incredible place.

Robert Moses' idea for getting it done included displacing an incredible neighborhood where Thelonious Monk lived, "Shuffle Along" was created. It

was a neighborhood of artists, in fact.

QUEST: I would argue that history can look back, but these projects always require somebody like that to just, at least get the thing going.

SILVER: Well, I think there is a -- if you will, an older way of thinking about vision, where it has to be driven by one man, but I also think there

is a new way of thinking about vision.

QUEST (voice over): There are two prima donnas here, the New York Phil and The Met.

SILVER: This is the Metropolitan Opera.

QUEST (on camera): The Met.

SILVER: Yes. Welcome to the grandest stage in New York City.

QUEST: It is extraordinary.

QUEST (voice over): There is no secret The Met has fallen on hard times. Years of financial struggles have led to layoffs and salary cuts.

[16:25:02]

Then struggle turned into crisis in April, when The Met announced a $200 million lifeline from the Saudi government was unexpectedly pulled.

QUEST (on camera): Is it going to be all right? Because they've got some problems at the moment on funding. Is it going to survive?

SILVER: It is going to survive because New York loves Grand Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera does it better than anyone.

QUEST (voice over): Relying on wealthy benefactors is a reality for the major institutions here. Just ask The Met's neighbor, the New York

Philharmonic.

MATIAS TARNOPOLSKY, CEO, NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: To run the New York Philharmonic takes $2 million a week of revenue, 52 weeks of the year

whether we are performing or not.

QUEST (on camera): Is it ever possible that ticket sales could cover the costs?

TARNOPOLSKY: Not in the current business model, but not since the creation of music and culture, not since the Medicis, you know?

QUEST (voice over): Financial pressures aside, these historic institutions are facing questions about their cultural relevance.

QUEST (on camera): You do face the criticism of how this place is for everyone. It is for the elites, some people say.

SILVER: Yes, so I think historically that has been true, right? When I was growing up, I would hear people say things like, well, I can't go to

Lincoln Center, I don't know what to wear, or I can't go to the Opera because I don't have a floor-length dress.

But now people come in all kinds of ways. People love to dress up to come to "The Nutcracker" Ballet and bring their kids. It is a moment. It is a

special occasion and special occasions are not elitist, everyone deserves a special occasion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Something for everyone at the Lincoln Center and it really is sort of Midtown, Upper West Side. You can't miss it. Huge campus!

Now, as we were just saying, you can't talk about this place without mentioning the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It is 184 years old, and it

is about to usher in a whole new era, which we will explain after the break, just listen to the sound.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:17]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest, live tonight at Lincoln Center. There is more Summer Friday from here. Quest MEANS BUSINESS in a moment.

I'll be speaking to the chief executive of the New York Philharmonic. He says the orchestra is part of the city's DNA, and he plans to keep it that

way. He's new in post.

We'll also hear about jazz at Lincoln Center, newer than the fell, but it's representing the totality of the genre. I'll be joined by one of its

musicians who is just arrived, and looking forward to talking about that.

All of that will only come after news headlines, because summer Friday or not. This is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.

Iran's foreign minister says the country will soon release a joint statement with Oman about the future of the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as

a purported framework of U.S.-Iran deal is said to be being finalized. A senior Trump administration official believes a majority of the Iranian

leadership is on board, but admits fractures remain.

It is still unclear whether Iran's supreme leader has signed off on the agreement.

A U.S. federal judge has rejected an attempt to request to stop President Trump's UFC event that was taking place at the White House. The plaintiffs

had argued that Mr. Trump -- the Trump administration, could not legally host a private event on the South Lawn. The judge found they did not have

legal standing to challenge it.

SpaceX's shares have closed 19 percent higher on their first day of trading. The blockbuster IPO gave SpaceX a market cap of two, one $1

trillion. It makes it the sixth valuable publicly traded company. It also makes Elon Musk the principal shareholder a trillionaire. The world's first

private trillionaire.

The United States, in a few hours, will host its first World Cup match in 32 years, as the competition shifts its focus into the U.S. Team USA will

take on Paraguay on home turf at the SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles.

Paraguay are making their first return to the World Cup since 2010. Right now, as you can see, the co-host Canada is trailing Bosnia, Herzegovina, 1-

0 in Toronto.

Canada is without its captain, Alphonso Davies, who is sidelined with an injury, and apparently, Canada's never won a match in the World Cup. So,

I'm being told, or some version thereof.

Coy Wire is in Inglewood in California, joins me now. So, I guess you know what's the mood? What's the method? How does it all feel as the U.S. kicks

off each role in the World Cup?

COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: What's the mood? Richard, what's the mood? It is World Cup. Happy Fri-yay, buddy.

And I hear you are in New York. You should be down here in L.A. with me. You visit cultural institutions. What's more cultural and more

institutional than the World Cup? The fans are flooding into Los Angeles ahead of tonight's U.S. opener.

But first, we got to check out those scenes you were just talking about in Toronto. Ahead of that match, where Canada's hosting Bosnia and

Herzegovina, thousands of fans turning city streets into a sea of red during the march to the match. As Richard mentioned, right now, Canada's

trailing 1-0 in the second half.

Now, meanwhile, here in L.A., Richard, demand for tickets hotter than a striker on a scoring streak. More than 200 tickets sold in just the last

hour on StubHub. And now, the get-in price, those nosebleed seats jumped from $900 to about $800 I'm no mathematician, but even I know that's the

kind of doubling that will have some fans checking their bank accounts and questioning their life decisions.

Honestly, it's a sign, though, of something much bigger. For decades, Richard mentioned this: soccer has been growing roots here in America. Now,

it's bearing fruit.

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: Whoa!

WIRE: The last time the World Cup came to the U.S. in '94, there was no MLS. Today, there are packed footy stadiums across the country, millions of

passionate fans, and a generation of players who grew up dreaming of moments exactly like this. This is not just a match, it's a bit of a

milestone, talking to some of these players, and they know it.

[16:35:03]

It's a chance for their country that once hosted the world's game to now show how much has become a part of it.

We asked the players what they'll be feeling when they walk out onto that pitch tonight. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN PULISIC, FORWARD, UNITED STATES: Probably be looking up at my family and friends in the stands who have supported me throughout all this.

So, there will be a lot of emotions. It will be a proud moment representing the U.S. home soil and a World Cup, I mean, very special.

SEBASTIAN BERHALTER, MIDFIELDER, UNITED STATES: Very happy motion, and you know, tears come, tears come, but yes, I'm -- I can't wait for that moment.

WESTON MCKENNIE, MIDFIELDER, UNITED STATES: Full circle moment, because, you know, as a kid dreaming about being in that position, wearing the

crest, and being able to hear the national anthem, I think, it's something that, yes, it makes dreams come true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, my producer, Dan Moriarty (PH), here told me, Richard, that I said the tickets jumped from $900 to $800 doubling up, that, that I was

incorrect. It's $900 to $1800. Somewhere inside every player that's going to be on this pitch tonight is the kid who once turned the backyard into a

World Cup stadium.

Tonight, that kid gets the best seat in the house, and so, does America when the World Cup kicks off here.

QUEST: All right, Coy. First of all, I remember the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., when it was being justified as being held here. And secondly, I fully

intend to fine you $1 every time on Quest Means Business, you use the word soccer instead of football.

So far, I think you owe me two but 50. Thank you very much, sir. Coy Wire in Los Angeles.

WIRE: You got it.

QUEST: Now, the Lincoln Center, you can get a seat -- a decent seat for a lot less than $1,900, I can tell you that. It's one of New York's greatest

cultural institutions, it is, the Philharmonic. And running it is perhaps the most prestigious job in classical music.

I'm sure that others will argue against me, but there you go.

Many household names have filled the conductor role over the years, Leonard Bernstein, to name one. You've also had Gustav Mahler, and you have Arturo

Toscanini all wielding the batter.

Now, it's Gustavo Dudamel is taking the reins in September. The 45-year-old from Venezuela has a massive conducting portfolio, and looking forward to

taking over here and adapting the new, including the score to the new West Side film adaptation and credits of Star Wars.

So, the chief executive of the New York Philharmonic is all in on Dudamel. Matias Tarnopolsky told me his tenure will mark a new era for this

institution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATIAS TARNOPOLSKY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 around the same time as other New

York icons, Tiffany and Company, The New York Times. We are part of New York's DNA. It's our jobs, whatever we do, to leave it better than we found

it. And that means thinking about the future.

In September, Gustavo Dudamel begins as the Tang Music and Artistic Director. It is a transformative new era that we are launching.

QUEST: So, what do you hope comes out of that new era? If, because -- if you are always looking to the future, what will be the barometer of success

of the new musical director, in your view?

TARNOPOLSKY: Ever more connection with the audiences of New York, America, globally, in person, and digitally, an ever-broader approach to the music

we are playing, blurring the boundaries between the classical and the new, the well-known, and the not so well known.

QUEST: And when we think of the orchestra, how big is the orchestra? At its -- at its full whack, how big is it playing?

TARNOPOLSKY: The New York Philharmonic is an orchestra of 106 members. We just stepped into a rehearsal of Bruckner, I think, there is probably about

115 people on the stage. It depends on the piece of music, but the New York Phil is 106 musicians -- 106 of the finest musicians in the world.

QUEST: I mean, they're really is.

TARNOPOLSKY: Truly.

QUEST: The 106 or -- it's an enormous undertaking. Now, we are a business program in that sense so, we have to look at that.

And we are sitting in an institution where one of the other institutions is in a bit of financial -- more difficulties than most. But that's -- but you

--

You are in a quite a good position, in a sense, isn't you? The -- you have strong ticket sales, you have strong corporate support, and you have strong

endowment.

TARNOPOLSKY: To run the New York Philharmonic takes $2 million a week of revenue, 52 weeks of the year, whether we are performing or not. About a

million dollars a week, 52 weeks of a year comes from fundraising. About 600 -- the $600,000 or so, 52 weeks of the year comes from ticket sales,

and the rest comes from endowment and other business activities.

[16:40:11]

So, $2 million a week, and that's what -- from an economic perspective, that's what we are focused on.

QUEST: When you got the job, were you aware that you were being handed an institution? Did it feel like a weight of?

TARNOPOLSKY: It is an awesome responsibility, and of course I feel the weight, but I feel the joy so much more.

QUEST: Related to that then, what happens inside you? You have been in the office all day, you have dealt with a truculent sponsor, you have got a

diva musician who is -- you can't get somebody, whatever it might be.

TARNOPOLSKY: You have done this.

QUEST: And you walk in the door. What happens is advertised when you walk in and the music starts playing,

TARNOPOLSKY: You melt. I mean, I -- what keeps me going is being able to walk into David Geffen Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, and here,

the orchestra rehearsing or performing.

I mean, one of the secrets of these jobs, and I don't think I've ever said this outside of my friends, is that we get free tickets to the

performances, and I just love going to concerts, and that's what drives me to hear this magnificent orchestra day in, day out

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: At the Lincoln Center. And by the way, there are plenty of free concerts that the Philharmonic does around New York during the summer,

which, of course, if you're visiting New York, you should certainly try to tap into. A country's anguish translated into song. In just a moment, a

look at a new opera that tells the story of how Ukrainian mothers are fighting to bring their abducted children back home.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live tonight at Lincoln Center.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: The magnificent lobby of the New York Met, and there are the chandeliers. By the way, those chandeliers are quite extraordinary. The

crystal in the chandeliers at the Met Opera were given to the Lincoln Center by the Austrian government as a -- as a mark of gratitude following

the Second World War.

[16:45:03]

1966, they were put up there, along with the Chagall. Of course, the two Chagalls that are also there.

Lincoln Center, it is proof that the arts provide more than mere entertainment. They are a cultural institution, and they give enduring

voice to our troubled times. That's why the New York Met -- we used to say the Met, helped commission a new work by a Ukrainian composer. It's called

Mothers of Kherson. Christiane Amanpour has our report.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (text): How will I ever reach you?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice over): It's been one of the most heart-wrenching and despicable crimes of the war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (text): I should have cut out my tongue before I told you, you could go.

AMANPOUR (voice over): Ukraine says around 20,000 of its children have been stolen away and illegally taken into Russia amid the chaos.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): Ukrainian children must be brought home.

AMANPOUR (voice over): The Kremlin says it evacuated Ukrainian children for their own safety. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has been slapped

with an international arrest warrant over the children's alleged abduction.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Nobody was going to separate those kids from their families.

AMANPOUR (voice over): But four years after he invaded Ukraine, many of these children are still far from home. Some, the lucky few, have been

rescued by their parents from deep inside Russia. And it's that courage and love that are the stars of a new opera co-commissioned by New York's

Metropolitan Opera House.

Courage comes easy when you've got one foot in the grave, one character sings.

ANZHELINA SHVACHKA, MAZZO-SOPRANO, NATIONAL OPERA OF UKRAINE (through translator): When I was preparing for this part, I could not hold my tears.

Every single bit of it is so heartbreaking. It brings up the feelings that every mother, every Ukrainian has.

AMANPOUR (voice over): The work was given a preview in Kyiv this month before the Ukrainian First Lady and some of the very mothers and children

who inspired it.

Even with her son Maxine safely back in Ukraine now, the pain of their six- month separation still haunts Yulia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel I am guilty for what happened.

AMANPOUR (voice over): This performance was a moment to step back from the war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really liked it. We applauded and could have continued until the morning.

AMANPOUR (voice over): Although the trenches and the skies across Ukraine are still ablaze with missile and drone fire, art is beginning to take

stock of what the war has cost.

OLENA ZELENSKA, FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE (through translator): News will go away, our diplomats and activists' voices will disappear, and art is here

forever. If we think about Picasso's Guernica and Schindler's List, and 20 Days in Mariupol, we need such works.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (text): I had goosebumps non-stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I had goosebumps. You really get a feeling of what happened. We lived through this again.

AMANPOUR: As the pain and desperate desire to start living again in Ukraine takes center stage, one truth shines through. There is no love like a

mother's love for her child.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: And, of course, it is all about the music. Play me the music. It's not just classical, it is not just opera, here, Jazz plays an entirely

different role, and just as crucially important.

These two gentlemen will be with me when we come back after the break. We are going to talk, and I believe we're actually going to play something as

well. In a moment, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:26]

QUEST: New -- Lincoln Center, it's been at the heart of this city's art scene since the 1950s, whichever way you want to look at it. Its youngest

organization is Jazz at Lincoln Center. It's a jazz program that started as a summer concert series back in 1987 as a way to attract younger audiences,

that was then it was supposed to help fill up seats when the other lot were out and about.

Now, a few years later, it became a permanent fixture on the Upper West Side, with famous musicians like Aretha Franklin and John Legend gracing

its stage over the years.

Joining me now, Todd Stoll is the -- Lincoln Center, and Chris Lewis.

Nice to have you, sir. He is a saxophonist at the Jazz at Lincoln Center. Not easy to say on a Friday afternoon.

What's the significance of the jazz program here, in a sense of why jazz on top of all the others?

TODD STOLL, VICE PRESIDENT OF EDUCATION, JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER: Jazz, you know, represents America, represents the sonic aspirations of our

democracy. It's music that comes out of oppression and it's music that has joy and hope and unbelievable enthusiasm.

QUEST: And the question of course is, to be part of that same institution that has the Met and the Phil, the Jazz also is world class.

CHRIS LEWIS, SAXOPHONIST, JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA: Absolutely. The organization is headed by the Maestro himself, Mr. Wynton Marsalis, whose

resume is as long as a holiday weekend. We all know that. He is brilliant.

And so, we have in house --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: Is he difficult?

LEWIS: Is he difficult?

QUEST: Yes.

LEWIS: I'll tell you off the camera.

No, in all seriousness, Wynton Marsalis is wonderful, and he heads our Jazz Lincoln Center Orchestra, which serves as the personification and the

global ambassadors for our mission, which is to enrich, expand, and educate audiences around the world for jazz.

QUEST: Do you suffer with jazz the same sort of difficulties that we are our business program that the others? I mean, we know we have talked about

the Mets issues and the Philharmonic seems to have more money than God. But, you know, David, in terms of the jazz, is it well supported?

STOLL: It's very well supported. We have a very supportive board. We have some of our original board members from the organization started. We have

great support, not just here in New York City, but all over the world.

QUEST: I often think of jazz as being very introspective. You know, you get a jazz ensemble and everybody's getting into themselves in a way. Is it

fun?

LEWIS: Absolutely. It's the most fun I've had in my life. And ultimately it can be introspective as well as really engaging to an audience. Right?

Ultimately what we do when we play music is we try to create a certain kind of emotive experience for an audience, to create something that's going to

help them feel something to get out of the mundane nine to fiveness of their life. That's what we do.

QUEST: And the goal here in this fantastic institution of culture is not to be elitist.

STOLL: No. Not at all.

QUEST: We have heard this again and again, and the real danger is that it's seen as being for the -- for the chattering classes, as we say.

LEWIS: I disagree entirely. But that's fair -- that's true. I mean, you know, this is democracy, people are free to believe what they like to

believe. But ultimately, we are very down home. What we do is very, very, very familial, as Wynton likes to say.

(CROSSTALK)

STOLL: Absolutely.

LEWIS: I mean, off the camera, I haven't seen Todd in about a week or so, and we could not stop talking to each other about everything from jazz to

what?

(CROSSTALK)

STOLL: That's our advantage. We have a lot of fun in jazz, a whole lot of fun. And musicians are free to express themselves. It's the maximum amount

of freedom within an expressive art form.

QUEST: How does it fit in with all the others?

And this -- I mean, I am absolutely blown away, gobsmacked, as you might say, by the number of different institutions here, from Juilliard, to where

we are in the Rose Building, to the -- I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

STOLL: When the -- when the organization started, Wynton was very specific. We collaborate with everyone, the New York Phil, we collaborate with the

ballet, we have collaborated with the Opera.

[16:55:02]

So, that collaboration helps you build those relationships, but we are also kind of like the cherry on top of the sundae. We are like the really great

part at the top.

LEWIS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

QUEST: OK. We have talked a lot about music. You, sir -- did you stay where you are? But you, sir, Chris, standards from the jazz age, the 1920s and

the 1930s are still so central to what jazz is. Body and Soul was written here in New York City in 1930s one of the most significant pieces.

And you are going to play a little bit for us, so we can all hear what makes the composition so special. It's a very intimidating. Look at the --

look at the -- I mean, I don't even know where to start with this thing, sir.

STOLL: Yes, I know.

LEWIS: -- after I'm finish.

QUEST: -- probably worth a fortune. Is that a vintage?

LEWIS: It is. It is.

QUEST: And it is worth a fortune.

LEWIS: After you off camera.

STOLL: Yes, yes.

QUEST: "PROFITABLE MOMENT" after the break. Sir.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Tonight's "PROFITABLE MOMENT", the Lincoln Center is an absolute jewel in the cultural life of New York City.

Whichever way you look at it, however you cut it up, there are, of course, always the traditional accusations that at the end of the day it is

elitist. The opera appeals to a very small, rarefied class. The Philharmonic is all old people's music, old dead people's music, and the

jazz as well.

The ballet, same again, but I think that completely ignores the point. Because whatever might be the overarching perception, or the thought, or

the view, the reality is those people who are putting together the Lincoln Center, those who are responsible for its cultural, its educational, they

are the ones who are opening it up to the community.

They are taking it out with free concerts, educational, bringing people in. The new amphitheater that's going to be built in the San Juan Hill area.

And so, of course, that brings us to our Summer Fridays. Why do we do them? What's the purpose of a Summer Friday? It's really very simple. Because all

our companies, or many companies, do tell employees on a Friday, take it a bit easier.

[17:00:04]

Don't worry, it's a Friday. Make the most of it.

And that gives us a chance to get rid a tie. Well, maybe just loose this a little bit.

END