What do you do when you step down after nine years as chairman of the Bermuda Festival?

Well, if you are Geoffrey Moore, you agree to remain on the board for a year to provide whatever assistance the new chairman may need, and you also accept a two-year appointment as president of the University of Florida?s Performing Arts board.

From this it could be deduced that Mr. Moore is a sought-after expert on the arts, but he is the first to dispel such a claim, pointing instead to his skills as an accountant and administrator which have led, and continue to lead him along the arts path ? a path he happily admits has opened his eyes to a new and interesting world.

?You don?t meet very many interesting accountants,? he says with a smile, ?but being in the performing arts arena, all of a sudden you realise there is a big, wide world of fun and entertainment out there.?

Naturally, after almost a decade at the helm of what has become one of Bermuda?s arts success stories, Mr. Moore has a lot to look back on, and while he is particularly pleased with certain developments under his aegis, he is also quick to give credit where it is due.

?If I can use a simile, I think of the Festival as a pie with many ingredients. First is the top-class executive team, which includes the artistic director, planning and finance director, technical director and general manager. Then there is the wonderful group of enthusiastic volunteers; the support of the community in the form of benefactors, sponsors and patrons; the general public?s appreciation, and the support and encouragement of the Governor and his predecessor, the Premier and his predecessor; the Department of Tourism; and the schools, particularly those who are involved in our outreach programmes. If any of these ingredients is missing the Festival cannot succeed.?

Finance is also a key factor in ensuring that the Bermuda Festival not only continues but also goes from strength to strength ? no mean feat in today?s world where all aspects of mounting it incur rising costs.

Mr. Moore is the first to admit that financing the Festival is ?never easy?, and it is perhaps a fine tribute to his chairmanship that the event which once operated in the red is now either breaking even or making ?a modest profit?.

He is also proud to note that, while the Government has lent support in other ways, the Bermuda Festival remains financially independent of the taxpayer.

?We have never asked Government for, nor received, direct funding,? he says.

Instead, it is the benefactors, patrons and sponsors who have faithfully underpinned the enormous expenses required to mount the annual arts festival, and their generosity has enabled our audience, both young and old, to enjoy sensibly priced tickets.

Since ticket sales comprise an important percentage of the Festival?s income, Mr. Moore is quick to point out that, while prices have risen to what some might think are daunting heights, they are still much cheaper than overseas prices, and are therefore what he calls ?a real bargain?.

?I hope we can maintain the present prices at the same level for the next year or so,? he says.

Asked to pinpoint other significant changes during his tenure, the retiring chairman mentions the deliberate broadening of the Festival?s programming, and therefore its public appeal, thus leading to bigger audiences and greater enjoyment of the cultural event.

?In the 1990s at least half the programme was inclined towards the traditional classical arts, whereas today we have become much more diverse by putting on shows that attract a much wider audience, so the traditional classical arts now represent perhaps one third of the shows. This has proved successful, particularly as there have been ?crossovers? whereby the classics have become more modern, as in the performances of the glamorous Ahn Trio (strings and piano), and singer Natalie Choquette who presented humorous opera.?

Mr. Moore is also pleased with the success of the new online booking system whereby patrons can not only select the programmes of their choice and pay for them, but also pick the seats they want.

Another bonus of the new online booking system has been the number of visitors coming to the Island for specific events during the off season.

Looking back, Mr. Moore modestly attributes his success as chairman to the ?solid foundation? created by his predecessor and others.

?If I have been successful, it is largely due to the hard work and dedication of the previous chairman and the administrative staff. I took over a Festival which was firmly established not only in the public?s eye but also enjoyed a fine reputation in the performing arts world. I was fortunate to have a solid foundation on which to build.?

Nine years must, of necessity, contain a host of memories: favourite shows, near-disasters, and more, and Mr. Moore is only too happy to share a few of them in retrospect. ?I can say without hesitation that the best show we ever did was the opera ?Carmen?. It was an amalgamation of overseas and Bermuda talent that put on six highly successful, sold-out performances at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts, which provided much more exposure of the Festival to the general populace.?

As for his most hair-raising experience, Mr. Moore says it was when the Bolshoi Ballet missed its connection to Bermuda as a result of arriving from Moscow at London?s Heathrow airport and unsuccessfully transferring in time to Gatwick.

Without the proper visas, it took him 48 sleepless hours on the telephone before the Canadian authorities finally agreed to a visaless rerouting through Toronto ?provided their feet did not touch the ground there?. The upshot was that the dancers arrived in Bermuda just in the nick of time for their opening performance.

?It was truly hair-raising,? Mr. Moore remembers.

An ongoing problem which continues to bedevil the Festival when considering overseas acts is the absence of a large venue with a fly tower.

?The ability to fly (raise and lower) sets in a large enough theatre has restricted us in bringing in certain shows,? the retiring chairman says. ?We can fly sets at City Hall but not at Ruth Seaton James, which is the largest audience capacity venue we have.?

On a happier note, the Festival?s educational programme in the schools is a source of great satisfaction to Mr. Moore, not least because it opens students? eyes to the arts, and hopefully bodes well for future audiences.

?My feeling is that the outreach programme is absolutely critical to encouraging awareness of the arts. It has worked tremendously well, and we have had great support from the schools to the teaching programmes which these world-class artists carry out while here. In fact, we try to encourage all artists to include these programmes in their contracts with us.?

Needless to say, mounting any edition of the Bermuda Festival takes a great deal of co-ordination, co-operation and hard work from a large team united in a common goal, but with so many strands to pull together, in his view a successful chairman needs not only a sense of humour but also the support of his or her family.

?I feel so fortunate to have been given an opportunity to work in a field with which I was initially unfamiliar, but my wife Ann has been very supportive,? he says. ?She has a Master?s degree in set design, has worked in television in the US, and was also an art director in Atlanta.?

Today, the couple make their home in Florida, but Mr. Moore will continue to commute between there and Bermuda as necessary.

As for the future, one of the things he is particularly pleased about is a developing link between the Bermuda Festival and the University of Florida performing arts programme which will see the two entities sharing expenses in terms of booking some artists. A case in point is The Royal Ballet, whose principal dancers will include both Florida and Bermuda on a tour next January ? a venture which would otherwise be unaffordable by the Bermuda Festival. Hopefully, this will be the start of a many such ventures in future.

There is no doubt that Mr. Moore has thoroughly enjoyed his time as chairman but, since the decision to step down was his, he has no regrets. Revealing that he will be succeeded by John Ellison, the first chairman of the Bermuda Festival, he says: ?It is now time for somebody else to put their stamp on the Festival, and I think John has the experience to do so.?