New York's Carnegie Hall Announces Reopening

The historic venue has announced its 2021-2022 season and will open its doors in October, 2021

For the first time since March 13, 2020, live performances are set to return to Carnegie Hall. The landmark venue will present more than one hundred concerts between October 2021 and June 2022.

Acclaimed violinist Leonidas Kavakos will play three concerts as part of his Perspectives series. The series kicks off in November, with Kavakos and Yuja Wang presenting works by J. S. Bach, Busoni, and Shostakovich.

In March, the Greek violinist will join Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax for an all-Beethoven trio program. Later that month, Kavakos will give the New York premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2, “Scherben der Stille” (“Shards of Silence”) with conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In April, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and film composer/conductor John Williams will perform Williams' new violin concerto, written for Mutter, in a gala concert titled Across the Stars: The Music of John Williams.

The season also highlights the work of African-American artists. February-March 2022 sees the launch of a city-wide festival focusing on Afrofuturism, a thriving aesthetic movement and practice that looks to the future and imagines alternate realities through a Black cultural lens. The festival includes not only music but also its intersection with visual art, literature, politics, science fiction, and technology.

“As we announce our plans for the 2021–2022 season, I feel enormously grateful for the strength and resilience of our entire Carnegie Hall family who has stood steadfast through these incredibly challenging times — serving audiences and the mission of the Hall, seeking to find new ways to make a difference, and keeping people connected through music,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director.

"Music and culture are fundamental to the life of this great city, and they will play a central role in helping to underpin our city’s recovery,” he added. “With the health and well-being of our concertgoers as a top priority, we feel it is vital that we do all we can to bring live music back as soon as possible."