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Press Releases
Carnegie Hall Expansion
For immediate release -- New York, NY, January 11, 1999 -- In a move that transforms an element of its past into an emblem for its future, Carnegie Hall today announced plans to renovate the building's lower level, originally a recital hall and most recently a commercial cinema, into a flexible, intermediate-size performance and education hall. The return of the space to the purpose of live performance will return Carnegie Hall to its original purpose of three halls -- including the 2,804-seat Carnegie Hall and the 268-seat Weill Recital Hall -- in service to music.
At the press conference led by Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern and Carnegie Hall Chairman Sanford I. Weill, Mr. Stern announced the two largest single gifts in the Hall's history: $10 million from trustee Arthur Zankel and his wife Judy to name the new facility The Arthur and Judy Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and $5 million from Joan and Sanford I. Weill to name the new facility's auditorium The Judith Arron Auditorium in honor of the Carnegie Executive and Artistic Director who passed away on December 18, 1998.
The project had been the latest mission of Mrs. Arron, who said in an address to the Carnegie Hall Board of Trustees in the fall of 1998, "This new facility will provide flexibility for performance that has never existed at Carnegie Hall. And it will have the capability to take our work from the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue to all corners of the world.
In acknowledging the gifts, Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern said, "Sandy Weill and Arthur Zankel are benefactors who stand with Andrew Carnegie in the magnitude of their gestures. Their generosity, and their understanding of the importance of music, will live on in this building, and be felt by the musicians and music-lovers of posterity."
In a statement, Arthur Zankel said, "As life-long New Yorkers, Judy and I have always loved Carnegie Hall. We are thrilled to help build this new hall, which greatly broadens what Carnegie can offer its audiences in the next century." Sanford Weill said, "This project was Judy Arron's biggest dream for Carnegie Hall. Joan and I can think of no more appropriate tribute to this great lady than to name its auditorium in her honor." The new hall, which is located directly under the main hall, will have the flexibility to be configured as an end-stage (with or without orchestra pit), center-stage, or flat-floor auditorium, to accommodate a variety of performance and teaching situations, with a seating capacity of up to 640 in the parterre and mezzanine levels. In addition, the space will be capable of accommodating audio-visual systems and communications technology for the recording and transmission of events. Construction on the new hall is expected to begin in the summer of 1999, and the opening will take place in the 2001-2002 season. The hall is being designed by the architectural firm Polshek Partnership Architects, whose involvement with Carnegie Hall dates from the master plan for renovation and restoration that began in 1979 and included the renovation of the two performance halls in 1986. The new facility will provide Carnegie Hall with an additional venue to accommodate the ongoing expansion of its artistic and educational programming. In addition to such existing programs as chamber music and recital events, musical theater presentations, professional training and development workshops, and events for young children, the new hall's programming will include thematic projects that will incorporate use of all three halls; contemporary music festivals; artist development; and the expansion of Carnegie Hall's family programming and educational programs for children, artists and teachers. In making the announcement, Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern said, "Thirty-nine years ago, this Hall was facing imminent destruction, and today, thanks to Judy Arron, with this project we are pushing the envelope of our greatest dreams for the future." Carnegie's main hall was dedicated to Mr. Stern in January 1997, and bears the honorary name The Isaac Stern Auditorium. Carnegie Hall Chairman Sanford I. Weill said, "This new hall positions Carnegie Hall internationally as never before. Not only will we have the potential to serve audiences directly throughout the world, but we will be able to expand our activities in ways that will affirm our status as America's musical flagship." A $50 million capital campaign for the development and construction of the new hall, called "The Third Stage: An Expansion Campaign for Carnegie Hall," has begun, and the gifts from the Zankels and the Weills raise the total amount pledged to the campaign so far to $40 million, or 80% of the goal. This total includes $12,885,000 from the City of New York (through the offices of the Mayor, City Council, Manhattan Borough President, and Department of Cultural Affairs), and $2 million from the New York State Senate, $2.5 million from the Uris Brothers Foundation, $2 million from The Hon. and Mrs. Felix G. Rohatyn, $1 million from William Rondina, and $1 million from Walter Scheuer. In addition, Sanford Weill announced the intention to raise the Hall's endowment fund, which currently stands at $91 million, to over $100 million, to help support the additional activities in the new hall. City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone said in a statement about the project, "The gifts of music and the artists who perform it add so much to the culture of our city. We at the Council take great pride in being a part of this outstanding public/private partnership." New York State Senator Roy Goodman, who is also a Carnegie Hall trustee, said, "This State funding is the first significant capital help for Carnegie Hall since it was saved from the wrecker's ball in 1960, and I am very happy to be associated with this expansion of Carnegie Hall's mission and activities that can benefit the entire state and nation." Christopher Jaffe of Jaffe Holden Scarbrough is the acoustical consultant for the project. Tishman Construction Corporation of New York will act as the construction manager.
Artistic and Educational Mission In the past decade, and particularly since its Centennial season in 1990-91, Carnegie Hall has sought to fulfill its mission -- to present the world's greatest music and most eminent musicians -- by becoming a central forum for a widening variety of activities about music, from its creation and the nurturing of musicians to the education of audiences and the community at large. This has resulted in such initiatives as a major commissioning program, the Carnegie Hall Composer's Chair, young artist debut series, special collaborative projects with major artists, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, American musical theater and popular song programs, and family concerts. In addition to presenting a community concerts series and conducting music education programs in New York City elementary, middle and high schools, Carnegie Hall hosts in its building a series of events for pre-schoolers, Professional Development Workshops for school teachers, Professional Training Workshops for musicians and scholars, and discussion events and pre-concert lectures for concert-goers. Many of these activities have been severely constrained by the limited availability of current spaces. The new facility will provide Carnegie Hall with a new venue to accommodate its artistic and educational programming. In addition, the new hall, by virtue of its intermediate size, adaptability in configuration, and capability to accommodate communications technology, will enable Carnegie Hall to further expand its activities and its mission in the following areas: · Thematic Projects and Festival Programming · Contemporary Music · Artist Development · Expanded Family and Educational Programs
The early stages of programmatic plans center around the concept of festivals -- whether devoted to repertoire- or composer-related themes, or the "Perspectives" series of major artist collaborations being launched in the 1999-2000 season with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and Maurizio Pollini -- whose events can be planned for the three different-sized spaces. Having the three halls will also allow Carnegie Hall to facilitate and support the continuum of artists' career development through presentation progressing from Weill Recital Hall through the two larger halls. The adaptability of the new hall will make possible a variety of events for children, and its technological readiness will enable Carnegie Hall's educational activities both to incorporate electronic media and to reach a greater audience via video conferencing. The hall will also allow for expansion of audience and participants for such programs as the Professional Development and Professional Training Workshops that currently take place in the Kaplan Space or Weill Recital Hall. New projects being planned to take place in the new hall include programs for children that will result in a slate of educational offerings for students from pre-school to high school, the expansion of the long-distance learning component to the LinkUP! in-school program that is being launched in the spring of 1999, and national workshops on arts-in-education. Specific plans for the new hall's first season of events will be announced as soon as they are in place.
Design for a new hall "The design is a good marriage of where Carnegie Hall has been and where it is going," said Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern. The new hall has been developed through an ongoing exploration of the needs of artists in composing and performing, the needs of audiences in listening to and appreciating music, and the needs of artists and educators in teaching. With these considerations in mind, the design direction featured the following priorities: · an acoustic environment that is contemporary in style while incorporating references to the existing building and interior · flexibility, ease, and cost effectiveness in regularly reconfiguring the stage and audience areas, providing for performances, demonstrations, and classroom instruction in the traditional end-stage as well as in the round, with raked or flat floor · capability to accommodate audio-visual systems and communications technology to record performances and educational activities for either delayed or real-time interactive transmission
The new facility will be contained within 5,200 square feet of the lower level of Carnegie Hall. The overall floor plan of the public spaces within the facility will consist of a rectangle nested into an ellipse, creating a dynamic interplay between straight and curved walls. The interior will be contemporary in style, while incorporating historical references in the form of displayed artifacts. The facility will consist of three levels: entrance at street level, mezzanine (seating up to 140) one level below, and parterre (seating up to 500) two levels below the street. Its entrance will be on Seventh Avenue, through the same area most recently used for the Carnegie Hall Cinema. The exterior façade will be reconfigured in a manner sympathetic to the design of the landmark building. A new marquee will be installed to cover the entranceway. Audiences may access the auditorium by stairs, escalators, and an elevator that will serve all three levels. The mezzanine lobby will provide direct access to the mezzanine level of the hall on three sides, and will contain a lobby, coat check, refreshment bar, and restroom facilities. The parterre level lobby will contain another refreshment bar. Artists may access the backstage facilities from both the parterre level and a separate artist entry connected to the 56th Street backstage entrance of the main hall. The parterre floor will consist of a sectional system of lifts to facilitate end-stage, end-stage-with-orchestra-pit, or center-stage raised performance platforms, with either a raked or flat floor for audience areas. The floor can also be completely flat, to facilitate education events. Patron seating will consist of a series of movable chair wagons that may be moved in and out of an adjacent storage "garage." The system of lifts and chair wagons will allow the performance/audience configuration to be changed quickly. As part of the restoration of the Seventh Avenue façade, the backstage left area of the main hall will be leveled to stage height -- facilitating ease of entrance and exit from both sides of the stage -- and a new freight elevator installed that will service both the new hall and the main hall.
An Exhibition in the Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall An exhibition on the new hall, including computer-generated renderings of the design, a three-dimensional model, and a display on the history of the space, will be on view in the Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall beginning January 11, 1999, through the summer of 1999. The Rose Museum, located at 154 West 57th Street, second floor, is open to the public at no admission charge every day except Wednesday, 11:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and to concert-goers during concerts.
The History The lower auditorium began its life in 1891 as the original Carnegie Recital Hall (by which name Weill Recital Hall became known for many years before being renamed in 1986). Though it was conceived and built to be a 1,200-seat recital hall, and in fact was the site of the very first performance at Carnegie Hall, a recital by pianist Franz Rummel one month before the Hall's official opening on May 5, 1891, the lower-level space began to undergo changes as early as 1895. It was in that year that the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a new tenant in one of the studio additions that had been added to the building the previous year, signed a long term lease to use the space as a theater for student productions. At that time the theater became known as the Carnegie Lyceum. During the Great Depression, Robert Simon, Sr., then owner of Carnegie Hall (who had purchased the hall from Mrs. Andrew Carnegie in 1924), carried on Carnegie's idea of renting building space for income by carving storefronts into all three sides of the building on street level. Over the years, the American Academy sublet the Lyceum to other producers, who presented a variety of events. By the late 1940s, enrollment at the Academy was growing. When rumors began to circulate that Carnegie Hall might be sold, the Academy began searching for its own home, and in 1951 moved to more spacious quarters in the ANTA Theater. The Carnegie Hall management took over the leasing of the Lyceum space in 1952, changing the name to the Carnegie Playhouse, and the theater became a site for off-Broadway productions and the showing of film classics. The physical aspects of the theater, which had been altered periodically to accommodate its hosts, began to deteriorate, obscuring its past. In 1960, when Carnegie Hall was saved from demolition and leased to The Carnegie Hall Corporation by the City of New York, the Carnegie Playhouse was renovated and converted into a commercial movie theater. In 1986, during the seven-month renovation and restoration of the Hall, some of the theater's space was taken away for the purpose of enlarging the main lobby and installing elevators and air conditioning; that year the Carnegie Hall Cinema became a facility housing two screening rooms. In 1997, The Carnegie Hall Corporation reclaimed the space to return the building to its original integrity of three halls under one roof.
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In a statement, Arthur Zankel said, "As life-long New Yorkers, Judy and I have always loved Carnegie Hall. We are thrilled to help build this new hall, which greatly broadens what Carnegie can offer its audiences in the next century." Sanford Weill said, "This project was Judy Arron's biggest dream for Carnegie Hall. Joan and I can think of no more appropriate tribute to this great lady than to name its auditorium in her honor." The new hall, which is located directly under the main hall, will have the flexibility to be configured as an end-stage (with or without orchestra pit), center-stage, or flat-floor auditorium, to accommodate a variety of performance and teaching situations, with a seating capacity of up to 640 in the parterre and mezzanine levels. In addition, the space will be capable of accommodating audio-visual systems and communications technology for the recording and transmission of events. Construction on the new hall is expected to begin in the summer of 1999, and the opening will take place in the 2001-2002 season. The hall is being designed by the architectural firm Polshek Partnership Architects, whose involvement with Carnegie Hall dates from the master plan for renovation and restoration that began in 1979 and included the renovation of the two performance halls in 1986. The new facility will provide Carnegie Hall with an additional venue to accommodate the ongoing expansion of its artistic and educational programming. In addition to such existing programs as chamber music and recital events, musical theater presentations, professional training and development workshops, and events for young children, the new hall's programming will include thematic projects that will incorporate use of all three halls; contemporary music festivals; artist development; and the expansion of Carnegie Hall's family programming and educational programs for children, artists and teachers. In making the announcement, Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern said, "Thirty-nine years ago, this Hall was facing imminent destruction, and today, thanks to Judy Arron, with this project we are pushing the envelope of our greatest dreams for the future." Carnegie's main hall was dedicated to Mr. Stern in January 1997, and bears the honorary name The Isaac Stern Auditorium. Carnegie Hall Chairman Sanford I. Weill said, "This new hall positions Carnegie Hall internationally as never before. Not only will we have the potential to serve audiences directly throughout the world, but we will be able to expand our activities in ways that will affirm our status as America's musical flagship." A $50 million capital campaign for the development and construction of the new hall, called "The Third Stage: An Expansion Campaign for Carnegie Hall," has begun, and the gifts from the Zankels and the Weills raise the total amount pledged to the campaign so far to $40 million, or 80% of the goal. This total includes $12,885,000 from the City of New York (through the offices of the Mayor, City Council, Manhattan Borough President, and Department of Cultural Affairs), and $2 million from the New York State Senate, $2.5 million from the Uris Brothers Foundation, $2 million from The Hon. and Mrs. Felix G. Rohatyn, $1 million from William Rondina, and $1 million from Walter Scheuer. In addition, Sanford Weill announced the intention to raise the Hall's endowment fund, which currently stands at $91 million, to over $100 million, to help support the additional activities in the new hall. City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone said in a statement about the project, "The gifts of music and the artists who perform it add so much to the culture of our city. We at the Council take great pride in being a part of this outstanding public/private partnership." New York State Senator Roy Goodman, who is also a Carnegie Hall trustee, said, "This State funding is the first significant capital help for Carnegie Hall since it was saved from the wrecker's ball in 1960, and I am very happy to be associated with this expansion of Carnegie Hall's mission and activities that can benefit the entire state and nation." Christopher Jaffe of Jaffe Holden Scarbrough is the acoustical consultant for the project. Tishman Construction Corporation of New York will act as the construction manager.
Artistic and Educational Mission In the past decade, and particularly since its Centennial season in 1990-91, Carnegie Hall has sought to fulfill its mission -- to present the world's greatest music and most eminent musicians -- by becoming a central forum for a widening variety of activities about music, from its creation and the nurturing of musicians to the education of audiences and the community at large. This has resulted in such initiatives as a major commissioning program, the Carnegie Hall Composer's Chair, young artist debut series, special collaborative projects with major artists, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, American musical theater and popular song programs, and family concerts. In addition to presenting a community concerts series and conducting music education programs in New York City elementary, middle and high schools, Carnegie Hall hosts in its building a series of events for pre-schoolers, Professional Development Workshops for school teachers, Professional Training Workshops for musicians and scholars, and discussion events and pre-concert lectures for concert-goers. Many of these activities have been severely constrained by the limited availability of current spaces. The new facility will provide Carnegie Hall with a new venue to accommodate its artistic and educational programming. In addition, the new hall, by virtue of its intermediate size, adaptability in configuration, and capability to accommodate communications technology, will enable Carnegie Hall to further expand its activities and its mission in the following areas: · Thematic Projects and Festival Programming · Contemporary Music · Artist Development · Expanded Family and Educational Programs
The early stages of programmatic plans center around the concept of festivals -- whether devoted to repertoire- or composer-related themes, or the "Perspectives" series of major artist collaborations being launched in the 1999-2000 season with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and Maurizio Pollini -- whose events can be planned for the three different-sized spaces. Having the three halls will also allow Carnegie Hall to facilitate and support the continuum of artists' career development through presentation progressing from Weill Recital Hall through the two larger halls. The adaptability of the new hall will make possible a variety of events for children, and its technological readiness will enable Carnegie Hall's educational activities both to incorporate electronic media and to reach a greater audience via video conferencing. The hall will also allow for expansion of audience and participants for such programs as the Professional Development and Professional Training Workshops that currently take place in the Kaplan Space or Weill Recital Hall. New projects being planned to take place in the new hall include programs for children that will result in a slate of educational offerings for students from pre-school to high school, the expansion of the long-distance learning component to the LinkUP! in-school program that is being launched in the spring of 1999, and national workshops on arts-in-education. Specific plans for the new hall's first season of events will be announced as soon as they are in place.
Design for a new hall "The design is a good marriage of where Carnegie Hall has been and where it is going," said Carnegie Hall President Isaac Stern. The new hall has been developed through an ongoing exploration of the needs of artists in composing and performing, the needs of audiences in listening to and appreciating music, and the needs of artists and educators in teaching. With these considerations in mind, the design direction featured the following priorities: · an acoustic environment that is contemporary in style while incorporating references to the existing building and interior · flexibility, ease, and cost effectiveness in regularly reconfiguring the stage and audience areas, providing for performances, demonstrations, and classroom instruction in the traditional end-stage as well as in the round, with raked or flat floor · capability to accommodate audio-visual systems and communications technology to record performances and educational activities for either delayed or real-time interactive transmission
The new facility will be contained within 5,200 square feet of the lower level of Carnegie Hall. The overall floor plan of the public spaces within the facility will consist of a rectangle nested into an ellipse, creating a dynamic interplay between straight and curved walls. The interior will be contemporary in style, while incorporating historical references in the form of displayed artifacts. The facility will consist of three levels: entrance at street level, mezzanine (seating up to 140) one level below, and parterre (seating up to 500) two levels below the street. Its entrance will be on Seventh Avenue, through the same area most recently used for the Carnegie Hall Cinema. The exterior façade will be reconfigured in a manner sympathetic to the design of the landmark building. A new marquee will be installed to cover the entranceway. Audiences may access the auditorium by stairs, escalators, and an elevator that will serve all three levels. The mezzanine lobby will provide direct access to the mezzanine level of the hall on three sides, and will contain a lobby, coat check, refreshment bar, and restroom facilities. The parterre level lobby will contain another refreshment bar. Artists may access the backstage facilities from both the parterre level and a separate artist entry connected to the 56th Street backstage entrance of the main hall. The parterre floor will consist of a sectional system of lifts to facilitate end-stage, end-stage-with-orchestra-pit, or center-stage raised performance platforms, with either a raked or flat floor for audience areas. The floor can also be completely flat, to facilitate education events. Patron seating will consist of a series of movable chair wagons that may be moved in and out of an adjacent storage "garage." The system of lifts and chair wagons will allow the performance/audience configuration to be changed quickly. As part of the restoration of the Seventh Avenue façade, the backstage left area of the main hall will be leveled to stage height -- facilitating ease of entrance and exit from both sides of the stage -- and a new freight elevator installed that will service both the new hall and the main hall.
An Exhibition in the Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall An exhibition on the new hall, including computer-generated renderings of the design, a three-dimensional model, and a display on the history of the space, will be on view in the Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall beginning January 11, 1999, through the summer of 1999. The Rose Museum, located at 154 West 57th Street, second floor, is open to the public at no admission charge every day except Wednesday, 11:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and to concert-goers during concerts.
The History The lower auditorium began its life in 1891 as the original Carnegie Recital Hall (by which name Weill Recital Hall became known for many years before being renamed in 1986). Though it was conceived and built to be a 1,200-seat recital hall, and in fact was the site of the very first performance at Carnegie Hall, a recital by pianist Franz Rummel one month before the Hall's official opening on May 5, 1891, the lower-level space began to undergo changes as early as 1895. It was in that year that the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a new tenant in one of the studio additions that had been added to the building the previous year, signed a long term lease to use the space as a theater for student productions. At that time the theater became known as the Carnegie Lyceum. During the Great Depression, Robert Simon, Sr., then owner of Carnegie Hall (who had purchased the hall from Mrs. Andrew Carnegie in 1924), carried on Carnegie's idea of renting building space for income by carving storefronts into all three sides of the building on street level. Over the years, the American Academy sublet the Lyceum to other producers, who presented a variety of events. By the late 1940s, enrollment at the Academy was growing. When rumors began to circulate that Carnegie Hall might be sold, the Academy began searching for its own home, and in 1951 moved to more spacious quarters in the ANTA Theater. The Carnegie Hall management took over the leasing of the Lyceum space in 1952, changing the name to the Carnegie Playhouse, and the theater became a site for off-Broadway productions and the showing of film classics. The physical aspects of the theater, which had been altered periodically to accommodate its hosts, began to deteriorate, obscuring its past. In 1960, when Carnegie Hall was saved from demolition and leased to The Carnegie Hall Corporation by the City of New York, the Carnegie Playhouse was renovated and converted into a commercial movie theater. In 1986, during the seven-month renovation and restoration of the Hall, some of the theater's space was taken away for the purpose of enlarging the main lobby and installing elevators and air conditioning; that year the Carnegie Hall Cinema became a facility housing two screening rooms. In 1997, The Carnegie Hall Corporation reclaimed the space to return the building to its original integrity of three halls under one roof.
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