Virginia McEnerney | She Sang. So Did His Heart

This Article was first published in the New York Times Fashion and Wedding Session

She Sang. So Did His Heart.

John Schreiber realized Virginia McEnerney was special after she began

singing an obscure cabaret song during a long car ride. He knew every word

Virginia McEnerney, a consultant for a nonprofit writers’ group, and John Schreiber, who heads NJPAC, met five years ago. They married in Brooklyn. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times.

Virginia McEnerney, a consultant for a nonprofit writers’ group, and John Schreiber, who heads NJPAC, met five years ago. They married in Brooklyn. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times

By Tammy La Gorce

The first time Virginia McEnerney met John Schreiber she was unaware of what she calls his “big man on campus” reputation in arts circles. In fact, she admitted to him something she now finds embarrassing: She thought NJPAC — short for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, where Mr. Schreiber is president and chief executive — was a political action committee.

What Ms. McEnerney considered a gaffe, though, meant nothing to Mr. Schreiber the night of their introduction in March 2014 at the 60th birthday party in Manhattan of a mutual friend, Robert Sherman. He was too enchanted by Ms. McEnerney to care.

“Virginia was elegant and articulate,” Mr. Schreiber said, “also very pretty.”

Fortunately for him, she liked the first impression he made, too. Call it dapper: Mr. Schreiber, 64, wears his hair in a crew cut and is rarely seen without a coat and tie. His taste in music might be considered unlikely for a modern-day arts impresario.

“John totally skipped over the music of our generation,” said Ms. McEnerney, 62, of Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Instead of rock and pop, he favors jazz and cabaret; he won an Emmy and Tony Award for producing “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” in the early 2000s.

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Virginia McEnerney, a consultant for a nonprofit writers’ group, and John Schreiber, who heads NJPAC, met five years ago. They married in Brooklyn. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times