NYC’s Lincoln Center Summer For The City Coming To A Close: Look Back At This Year, Previous Year’s Events

Editor’s note: Earlier this season, we covered the Baand Together events with a portion of Brazil Week covered in a photo slideshow. We also covered Antone’s Nightclub’s 50th Anniversary celebration. 

• American Modern Opera Company makes Lincoln Center debut with its largest and most ambitious Run AMOC* Festival, featuring 10 New York premieres across 12 productions

• Mahabharata, a large-scale theatrical work offering a contemporary take on the Sanskrit epic

• The BAAND Together Dance Festival returns in its fifth anniversary, featuring five major NYC companies onstage together

• The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center under Music & Artistic Director Jonathon Heyward features a world premiere commission by James Lee III and continued collaboration with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab

• Week-long series of events marking the 60^th anniversary of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

• Nadia Sirota returns with expanded Living Music Underground series

• Adventurous string quartet Brooklyn Rider celebrates 20^th anniversary with six concerts

• Lincoln Center’s Summer Forum: 50^th Anniversary, engaging teaching artists and educators to collectively imagine the next 50 years of teaching artistry around the globe

• Star-studded Brazil Week brings performances by Liniker, Lenine, Os Mutantes, and more

• Ruidosa Fest, the first fully female-led music festival in Latin America in its second U.S. appearance

• Waitress: The Musical in American Sign Language by Deaf Broadway; Lulada Club Big Band; Juneteenth Events curated by Carl Hancock Rux; Big Umbrella Day; Jazz Is Dead; Duck Down’s 30^th anniversary; I Am the Band with Bobbye Hall and more; AR Installation with Miles Regis; Social Dance Nights; and much more

• The American Modern Opera Company makes their long-awaited Lincoln Center debut with their largest and most ambitious Run AMOC* Festival, featuring 12 productions, 10 of which are New York premieres, creating an immersive landscape of art across opera, dance, and music. Highlights include:
• The NY premiere of The Comet/Poppea fusing Claudio Monteverdi with George Lewis’s new score and starring Davóne Tines and Anthony Roth Costanzo, set design by Mimi Lien and director Yuval Sharon in his Lincoln Center debut (Jun 19-21);
• The NY premiere of Harawi, starring Julia Bullock, Conor Hanick, and Bobbi Jene Smith, directed by Zack Winokur (Jun 26);
• A weekend-long celebration of Julius Eastman curated by Seth Parker Woods, featuring Davóne Tines Conor Hanick, and more (Jun 28-29);
• The NY premiere and first fully staged performance of Music for New Bodies by composer Matthew Aucoin and director Peter Sellars, inspired by the visionary poetry of Jorie Graham, and featuring Paul Appleby, Taylor Raven, Meryl Dominguez, Sandbox Percussion, and more (Jul 10-12)

• Brazil Week, with concerts and programs that showcase the country’s vibrant artistry and cultural traditions. Featured artists include seven-time Latin GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Lenine, Latin GRAMMY nominee Melly, psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes, art-pop diva Anelis Assumpção, MPB superstar Tulipa Ruiz, influential soul-samba singer Liniker, an interactive performance for families: B A T U from Artefactos Basco, a cross-cultural visual exhibition from the permanent collection of the Instituto Museu Itamar Assumpção (MU.ITA); collaborations with Brasil Summerfest, and more (Jul 16–20)

• The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center celebrates its second season under Renée and Robert Belfer Music & Artistic Director Jonathon Heyward with exciting premieres and commissions paired with timeless classics for an electrifying season that spans drama, passion, and triumph (Jul 19-Aug 9). Highlights include:
• Works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Louise Farrenc, Clara and Robert Schumann, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, alongside Michael Abels, Osvaldo Golijov, Iman Habibi, Gabriela Lena Frank; a New York premiere by Anna Clyne, and a world premiere commission by James Lee III. Guest conductors include Dame Jane Glover, Karen Kamensek, and Joana Carneiro, with featured soloists Jess Gillam, Gabriella Reyes, James Ehnes, Leonora Armellini, Yeol Eum Son, and singers from the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Sterling Elliott, recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, is the featured soloist for The Avery Fisher Legacy Concert.
• The continued exploration of Robert Schumann’s symphonies through the lens of mental health via a 3-part conversation presented in collaboration with Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established with the World Health Organization (WHO), focusing on the intersection of arts and wellbeing.
• Continued collaborations with the New York Philharmonic through their Very Young Composers Program (VYC), as well as with the New York City Public Schools’ Summer Arts Institute (SAI).

• Mahabharata, Why Not Theatre’s visually stunning retelling of the well-known Sanskrit epic as a theatrical experience, exploring philosophical and spiritual ideas in two distinct parts, Karma and Dharma. Led by an international South Asian cast, the production balances East and West, traditional and contemporary (Jun 24–29)

• Living Library: Celebrating 60 Years, a week-long series of events in celebration of the 60th anniversary of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, inviting New Yorkers to experience its cultural legacy including film screenings, children’s storytimes, reading parties, dance recitals, exclusive tours of the Library’s treasures, participatory workshops, play readings, pop-up shops, concerts, silent discos, and more. Presented in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (Jul 23-27)

• The fifth anniversary of the BAAND Together Dance Festival, as five of NYC’s most iconic dance companies—Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem—reunite on one stage. Made possible by CHANEL (Jul 29–Aug 2)

• Brooklyn Rider: 20 Years at Play, a series of 6 concerts with the adventurous string quartet Brooklyn Rider, featuring acclaimed collaborations and new commissions to celebrate their 20^th anniversary (Aug 7-Aug 9)
• Performances include their most recent commissioning project, The Four Elements: Earth & Air, Fire & Water. Special guests include clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, vocalist Magos Herrera, percussionist Mathias Kunzli, Kurdish instrumentalist Kayhan Kalhor, soprano Ariadne Greif, and more.

• The acclaimed violist, conductor, and Peabody Award-winning producer Nadia Sirota curates and hosts the category-defying Living Music Underground series featuring artists that push the boundaries of classical, jazz, experimental, ambient, electronic, and pop.
• Featuring Nathalie Joachim (June 12); the PUBLIQuartet (Jun 19); Eliza Bagg aka Lisel (Jun 26); Edinburgh Rollick (Jul 3); CJ Camerieri aka CARM (Jul 10); Clarice Jensen (Jul 17); Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer (Jul 24); Riley Mulherkar (Jul 31); Kelly Moran (Aug 7)

• Lincoln Center’s Summer Forum: 50^th Anniversary, bringing together teaching artists, educators, and practicing artists from around the world to engage and celebrate 50 years of teaching artistry at Lincoln Center. Includes workshops with The Juilliard School, choreographer Hilary Easton, The Necessary Space’s Simon Sharkey, and theatre artist Francine Kliemann among others; performances by Music from the Sole, Kid Koala; expert panels, roundtables, and more (Jul 9-12)

• An opening night extravaganza featuring Robert Glasper and Alain Pérez & La Orquesta, contemporary superstars in the fields of jazz, Latin pop, Hip-Hop, Cuban traditional, and R&B; followed by silent disco with DJ CherishTheLuv (Jun 11)

• A day-long Caribbean Day takeover curated in collaboration with special guest Etienne Charles showcasing steel pan performance, Caribbean Masquerade mask making, a pop-up market, and more, culminating in a concert party at Damrosch Park featuring Charles and an array of Road March winning calypso & soca artists from around the Caribbean (Jun 14)

• Shanghai Day, a one-day, family-friendly celebration presented with the Shanghai International Arts Festival that features the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, jazz by Li Xiao Chuan, a live Arknights game music concert in Damrosch, and a garden party showcasing Shanghai’s cultural heritage and creative spirit (Jul 26)

• I Am The Band celebrates the women whose often-unheralded creativity has been key to the evolution of popular music, through the bands of the ’80s and ’90s and onwards. Featured performers include Bobbye Hall, Bridget Everett, Lisa Fischer, Wendy & Lisa, Vanessa Carlton, Scarlet Rivera, Yasmin Williams, and more (Jun 22)

• A free augmented reality installation outdoors on Josie Robertson Plaza designed by EyeJack, featuring art by Trinidad-born artist Miles Regis, that fuses his signature colorful style in this unique celebration of the city’s vibrant cultural backgrounds (Jun 14 – Aug 9)

• Our popular social dance series on The Dance Floor under the disco ball, with dozens of genres all summer long—including Lindy Hop, tango, bachata, salsa, country line dancing, a disco dance revival, and more—each beginning with a DJ set and dance tutorials across a variety of dance styles.
• Featured artists include Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks (Jun 12); Lulada Club Big Band (Jun 13); Joe McGinty & The Loser’s Lounge (Jun 20); Stud Country (Jun 26); Las Guaracheras (Jul 3); Catherine Russell with The Danny Jonokuchi Big Band (Jul 11); Caleb Teicher curating K-Swing Wave! (Jul 12); Leonardo Suarez Paz (Jul 24); Nelly Swing (Aug 1); Judy Santos and DJ Santana (Aug 6); and more

• Silent discos on The Dance Floor multiple nights per week with a diverse range of dance styles from R&B, Hip-Hop, salsa, disco, cumbia, deep house, pop, Afro-Caribbean hits, and more.

• The Underground at Jaffe Drive, a speakeasy-inspired space, hosting
• Comedy Underground, weekly stand-up comedy nights with curation by Suzette Simon of NYLaughs, Marcus Russell Price, and Abby Govindan and Mohanad Elshieky of Jungle Cat Comedy;
• and Jazz Underground jazz nights with Jazz at Lincoln Center, featuring Arcoiris Sandoval (Jun 22); NALEDI (Jun 29); Savannah Harris (Jul 6); Annette Aguilar & StringBeans (July 20); and more

• A takeover with the Ruidosa Fest, the first fully female-led music festival in Latin America, featuring a full day of live music with a starry lineup including headliner Snow Tha Product, J Noa, Empress Of, Yendry, Tayhana, MC Millaray, PAMÉ, Sofía Rei, and more; a music industry panel; and a late-night Silent Disco (Aug 9)

• A series of events with Lincoln Center’s inaugural poet-in-residence, Mahogany L. Browne, including her successful multidisciplinary series, Seen, Sound, Scribe and the meditative spoken word series Our Echoes Be Bloom (Jun 15; Jul 11, 25; Aug 8)

• Deaf Broadway returns, performing Waitress: The Musical entirely by Deaf actors in American Sign Language, directed by Sandra Mae Frank (Jul 31)

• The Art of Wellbeing, a pop-up wellness studio that harnesses the power of art to engage the mind, body, and spirit. Events include guided meditations, movement-based lessons, and dance classes accompanied by live music. Presented in collaboration with health and wellness experts at NewYork-Presbyterian, the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts (Jun 18 – Jul 19)

• The Wedding: New York’s Biggest Day, inviting hundreds of couples to celebrate love in a multicultural ceremony with music, poetry, social dance and more, for a wedding that could only happen at Lincoln Center (Jun 21)

• Big Umbrella Day, a one-day iteration of Lincoln Center’s Big Umbrella Festival, creates relaxed spaces which specifically welcome neurodivergent audiences through multi-sensory experiences, performances, installations and workshops (Jul 5)

• A campus-wide celebration of Juneteenth curated by Carl Hancock Rux with Oh Sankofa! showcasing the rich traditions of African and African-American folklore, and a transcendent performance with Black Theatre United, commemorating the rich history of Black American culture and music, across genres and eras. Featuring movement pieces created by Ayodele Casel and Darrell Grand Moultrie, spoken word by Mel Chanté, and musical performances featuring Matthew Whitaker, Norm Lewis, Capathia Jenkins, Darius de Haas, Lillias White, Brian Stokes Mitchell, J. Harrison Ghee, and Broadway Inspirational Voices under the direction of Allen Rene Louis (Jun 19)

• Stamptown, an unforgettable comedy kaleidoscope of circus, dance, improv, and vaudeville (Jun 28)

• Featured performances in Damrosch Park including Jazz Is Dead’s Adrian Younge With His 35-Piece Orchestra (Jun 18); Antone’s 50^th Anniversary Celebration (Jun 29); Duck Down 30^th Anniversary Show (Jul 5); Los Mirlos (Jul 10); J.PERIOD Live Mixtape (Jul 27); and more

• Double Dutch Fusion Freestyle performances from world-class championship Double Dutch teams with the National Double Dutch League (Aug 7)

• The San Juan Procession, a unique celebration of the Afro-Venezuelan tradition through a “walking procession” with dance and percussion led by Brooklyn-based band Tambor y Caña (Jun 21)

• A series of workshops and performances, and Silent Disco with David Dorfman Dance (Jun 25-27)

• The celebrated globalFEST returns with their mega-festival featuring performers from around the globe including Gaye Su Akyol, Natu Camara, BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness), and El Laberinto del Coco. Martha Redbone curates the Hearst Plaza stage with Thea Hopkins, Taina Asili, and Claudia Acuña, and the evening culminates in a Silent Disco from the HAZA DJ collective (Aug 2).

• La Casita, an annual festival of traditional and contemporary music and spoken word performance, presents an all-star lineup of international artists (Jun 27)

• Expanded offerings for families including Storytimes curated by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts with artists such as Ali Stroker, Jennifer Jones, LaFrae Sci, and Careitha Davis; interactive dance workshops and showcases; and family performances with artists including Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh, Missy D, Lala Tamar & Ofer Ronen, and more.

Lincoln Center

In 2019, new leadership at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts set a strategic direction for our work with a renewed focus on equity and service to all of New York City. In the spring of 2020, we committed to hold ourselves accountable in ways we believe will help us be part of positive change in our community. These commitments remain at the forefront of our work every day. As tectonic societal shifts around social justice continue, our progress in this area is the most important measurement of our contributions to the well-being of all New Yorkers.