NY’s Lincoln Center kicks off 50th anniversary bash
NEW YORK (AFP) - - New York’s famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts kicked off 50th anniversary celebrations Monday with Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
The piece, played by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by new director Alan Gilbert, was the same conducted by Leonard Bernstein in 1959 when then president Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the ground breaking at the theater complex.
The center was built as the first major cultural complex in the United States and has become the world’s largest performance center.
Major redevelopment is underway and celebrations began in the recently reopened Alice Tully Hall, which is winning plaudits for its acoustic qualities.
Others participating in ceremonies included New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson, and performers such as violin great Itzhak Perlman, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
To celebrate, the Empire State Building was due to light up its spire in the Lincoln Center’s colors of magenta and orange.
“This is truly a transformative time for Lincoln Center — both artistically and institutionally,” said Reynold Levy, Lincoln Center president, in a statement.
“Transformative, not just because we are renovating our halls and upgrading our public spaces, but also because we are completely re-imagining what a performing arts center can be for today’s world, just as the founders did 50 years ago.”
