After saying “Good Night Alice” in April 2007, a transformed Alice Tully Hall, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FX Fowle, will re-open on Feb. 22, 2009. The opening will be with the Alice Tully Hall Opening Nights Festival, a two-week celebration designed to highlight the artistic range of the venue’s primary tenants and showcase the Hall’s prominence as one of New York City’s premier concert venues. The $159 million renovation will make the 1,087 capacity venue a larger pearl in the Lincoln Center complex.
Most Festival performances, including orchestral and chamber music, choral works, recitals, popular song, world music, period and contemporary ensembles and film, will be presented either free or with tickets priced at $25 or less. Overall, the Festival will offer 22 events including three world, one American, and six New York premieres. Most tickets go on sale May 28.
First Look–The Opening Night concert on Feb. 22 will be a collaboration of three of the Lincoln Center resident organizations that have most frequently used Alice Tully Hall as a venue over the years: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Juilliard School. In a program that ranges from 15th-century Sephardic music to works by Bach and Golijov, the performance will feature Jordi Savall and soprano Montserrat Figueras, pianist Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, members of The Chamber Music Society, and conductor David Robertson leading the Juilliard Orchestra.
The renovated three-story-high, glass-enclosed lobby that cantilevers out onto Broadway at 65th Street will be the breathtaking addition to he building. To better accommodate audiences and visitors before and after performances, the soaring, light-filled space will house new facilities, including a mezzanine-level donor room for special events, more restrooms, a café/bar with extended public hours and an expanded box office and ticketing area.
Some of the other initial bookings include the London Philharmonic’s American premiere of Vladimir Martynov’s opera “Vita Nuova” (Feb. 28, 2009); Steve Reich and Musicians, Alarm Will Sound and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (March 3, 2009); Stew, the singer-songwriter behind the new Broadway rock musical, “Passing Strange” (March 6, 2009); the Juilliard Orchestra playing Messiaen’s expansive “Des Canyons aux Étoiles” (Feb. 26, 2009); the Collegium Vocale Gent (March 1, 2009); and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (March 2 and 4, 2009).
(The image accompanying this story is from NewYork.Construction.com)
