How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall?  Jackhammer, jackhammer, jackhammer...
New York's Carnegie Hall is not known for underground music, but its new $100 million Zankel Hall was carved out of the bedrock below its main stage.

This 644-seat performance space, a smaller cousin to the 2804-seat main stage, is set to open on September 12 with an eclectic season of music designed to attract new audiences. In addition to the classical-crossover Kronos Quartet, Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso and Emmylou Harris will be able to test out this $100 million hall, as will more conventional Carnegie fare as Dawn Upshaw and the Julliard String Quartet.

In an April 3 article in the New York Times, Carnegie's artistic and executive director Robert Harth said,"Great music comes in many forms and in many sizes." He also admitted that their mining operation (6,300 cubic yards of rock were removed to create the space) was intended to reach beyond the typical Carnegie Hall crowd. World music, early music, jazz and American song appear throughout the opening season, and tickets are priced below those of Carnegie's other two stages.

The opening festival (Sept. 12 - 27) shouts "outreach." The schedule includes Youssou N'Dour, Kenny Barron, Emmanual Ax, Meredith Monk, Bill Frisell, and a series of short concerts programmed by Carnegie's incoming composer-in-residence, John Adams.

Delayed by more than a year by the September 11 events, the hall makes its debut at a time when arts organizations are increasingly competing for scarce audience dollars. Nonetheless, it helps fulfill Andrew Carnegie's 1891 vision of three halls under a single roof.


Link to Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall (main page or premiere season brochure)

Link to New York Times coverage:
April 3 Robin Pogrebin on Carnegie Hall's premiere season announcement
April 10 - John Rockwell on competition for audiences