Merkin Hall

Last updated
Merkin Hall
Performance at Merkin Concert Hall 7-27-2007.jpg
Merkin Hall
Address129 West 67th Street
Location New York City, New York, United States
Coordinates 40°46′30.59″N73°58′58.98″W / 40.7751639°N 73.9830500°W / 40.7751639; -73.9830500 Coordinates: 40°46′30.59″N73°58′58.98″W / 40.7751639°N 73.9830500°W / 40.7751639; -73.9830500
Public transit 66th Street – Lincoln Center
Owner Kaufman Music Center
TypeConcert hall
Capacity 449 seats
Opened1978
Website
www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/

Merkin Hall is a 449-seat concert hall in Manhattan, New York City. The hall, named in honor of Hermann and Ursula Merkin, is part of the Kaufman Music Center, a complex that includes the Lucy Moses School, a community arts school, and the Special Music School (P.S. 859), a New York City public school for musically gifted children. Merkin Hall hosts 70,000 concertgoers a year. [1]

Contents

Overview

Merkin Hall opened in Kaufman Music Center's (then The Hebrew Art School's) Abraham Goodman House in 1978, and soon after distinguished itself as an important New York City venue, featuring innovative classical and new music programming (it is the recipient of three awards in Adventurous Programming by ASCAP/Chamber Music America). [2] Located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, it is near the Lincoln Center campus but is not affiliated with it. Merkin Hall hosts over 200 concerts a year, many of them Kaufman Music Center presentations. It has several long-running series, presenting established and emerging artists, as well as Broadway and Family focused shows. Beginning in 1986, Kaufman Music Center has co-presented New Sounds Live with WNYC, hosted by John Schaefer and broadcast live on the radio. In 2003, New York Festival of Song began its series of co-presentations at Merkin Hall as well. WQXR-FM's online webcast Q2 began live streaming of Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival in 2011.

Renovations

Kaufman Music Center launched a $17 million campaign to renovate the complex. The lead donors were Elaine and Henry Kaufman, who pledged $7 million towards the project. Elaine Kaufman has been a member of the center's board for more than twenty years, and served as its chairman from 1999 to 2005. She said, “The Center is a unique organization, placing equal emphasis on education and performance, an essential balance for developing the artists and audiences of the future.”

Renovations included restoration of the building façade using contemporary materials and redesign of the main entrance; expanded space for music classes, special events, and theater workshops, including two new classrooms and a flexible balcony educational space; enhanced audio-visual capabilities in Merkin Hall, including updated listening systems for hearing-impaired concert goers and students; structural and mechanical improvements, including the installation of a new HVAC system; reupholstered seating and minor refinishing in Merkin Hall; renovation and expansion of restrooms; expansion of lobby space to serve the two schools; and the redesign of Merkin Hall lobby. The renovation respects the building's original form while enhancing its functionality and appearance. [3]

The goals of the renovation were portrayed in theatrical terms: “At a performance venue, the show should begin on the sidewalk. We’re going to have a welcoming new canopy over the street entrance, with the Kaufman name on it big enough to be visible from both Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. We will transform the arrival experience and brighten it up with vivid fire-red marble—everything from coat-checking to buying your refreshments to finding your seat will take place in a more glamorous setting, so that Merkin Hall and the Kaufman Center can become more indelibly stamped on the New York mind than ever before.”

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnegie Hall</span> Concert hall in New York City

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Center</span> Performing arts venue in New York City

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 million visitors annually. It houses internationally renowned performing arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the Juilliard School of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Geffen Hall</span> Concert hall in New York Citys Lincoln Center

David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Von Braun Center</span> Arena in Alabama, United States

The Von Braun Center is an entertainment complex, with a maximum arena seating capacity of 9,000, located in Huntsville, Alabama. The original facility debuted in 1975 and has undergone several significant expansions since its opening. In addition to the arena, features multiple exhibit halls, a concert hall, a playhouse, and many other facilities, for meetings and exhibits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DeVos Place Convention Center</span> Convention center in Grand Rapids, Michigan

DeVos Place Convention Center, erected in 2004 on the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a multi-purpose convention center. It is named for Richard DeVos, who donated $20 million towards its construction.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an American interdisciplinary design studio that integrates architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts. Based in New York City, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is led by four partners – Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro, and Benjamin Gilmartin – who work with a staff of architects, artists, designers, and researchers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Auditorium</span>

Public Auditorium is a multi-purpose performing arts, entertainment, sports, and exposition facility located in the civic center district of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The 10,000-capacity main auditorium shares its stage with a second venue housed at the facility: the 3,000-capacity Music Hall. Although Public Auditorium was planned and funded prior to World War I, construction did not begin until 1920, and the building did not open until 1922. Designed by city architect J. Harold McDowell and Frank Walker of Walker and Weeks in a neoclassical style matching the other Group Plan buildings, it was the largest of its kind when opened, then seating 11,500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straz Center for the Performing Arts</span>

The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1987 as the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and was renamed in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Town Hall (New York City)</span> Performance space in Manhattan, New York

The Town Hall is a performance space at 123 West 43rd Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was built from 1919 to 1921 and designed by architects McKim, Mead & White for the League for Political Education. The auditorium has 1,500 seats across two levels and has historically been used for various types of events such as speeches, musical recitals, and film screenings. Both the exterior and interior of the building are New York City landmarks, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Tully Hall</span> Concert hall at Lincoln Center in New York City

Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall. Tully Hall is located within the Juilliard building, a Brutalist structure, which was designed by renowned architect Pietro Belluschi, and completed and opened in 1969. Since its opening, it has hosted numerous performances and events, including the New York Film Festival. Tully Hall seats 1,086 patrons. It is the home of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Beach Convention Center</span> Convention center in Florida

The Miami Beach Convention Center is a convention center located in Miami Beach, Florida. Originally opened in 1958, the venue was renovated from 2015-2018 for $620 million. The re-imagined and enhanced MBCC includes a 60,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom, four junior ballrooms, 500,000 square feet of flexible exhibition space, 84 meeting rooms, and pre-function space, as well as outdoor spaces and terraces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somerville Theatre</span>

The Somerville Theatre is an independent movie theater and concert venue in the Davis Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Over one hundred years old, the Somerville Theatre started off as a vaudeville house and movie theater. The theater has since transitioned and now operates as a live music venue and first-run movie theater. As a music venue, the theater has played host to many historic concerts, including the first of the two Last Dispatch concerts, two shows by Bruce Springsteen in 2003, and a performance by U2 in 2009. Recent live performances have included Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cursive, Norah Jones, The Jonas Brothers, Joan Baez, and the John Butler Trio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fresno Convention Center</span>

The Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Fresno, California. The four-building complex was originally made up of three main venues when completed in 1966, and underwent several expansions with the latest additions in 1981 and 1999.

Situated in the heart of Fort Collins, The Lincoln Center is the premier multi-venue performing and visual arts center in Northern Colorado. It was founded in 1978 through a community initiative called “Designing Tomorrow Today” that resulted in a voter-approved $2.2 million capital improvements tax, with the community raising an additional $300,000 to complete a new performing and visual arts center for Fort Collins.

Yasuhiko Fukuoka is a composer for concerts, film, and television. Native of Japan, he studied Film Scoring and Music Synthesis at Berklee College of Music. His works have been performed in North America, Central America, Europe and Asia, and his appearances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Birdland, Festival de Cannes, and many others. Yasuhiko currently lives and works based out of New York, NY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaufman Music Center</span>

Kaufman Music Center is a performing arts complex in New York City that houses Lucy Moses School, Special Music School, and Merkin Concert Hall and the "Face the Music" program. Originally known as the Hebrew Arts School, it was founded in 1952 and is currently located on West 67th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. More than 75,000 people use the Center annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)</span> Opera house in Manhattan, New York

The Metropolitan Opera House is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the theater was designed by Wallace K. Harrison. It opened in 1966, replacing the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. With a seating capacity of approximately 3,850, the house is the largest repertory opera house in the world. Home to the Metropolitan Opera Company, the facility also hosts the American Ballet Theatre in the summer months.

Kaufman Music Center's Lucy Moses School is a community arts school located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1952 as The Hebrew Arts School for Music and Dance, it is now part of Kaufman Music Center, a performing arts complex that houses the Special Music School and Merkin Concert Hall. It is the largest community arts school in the city, and offers lessons to 3,000 children and adults annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford Performing Arts Center</span> Performing arts center in Oxford, Alabama

The Oxford Performing Arts Center is a performing arts venue located in Oxford, Alabama. The venue opened in May 2013 with a gala concert by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sony Hall</span> Concert venue in Manhattan, New York

Sony Hall is a concert venue operated by Blue Note Entertainment Group located on West 46th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, New York City. Like many theaters in NYC, it has served many functions since its opening in 1938. Located in the basement of the Paramount Hotel, it began as Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe nightclub where the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe was filmed, and later spent time as a burlesque theater before becoming a legitimate Broadway theatre under the names Century Theatre, Mayfair Theatre, and Stairway Theatre. As a Broadway theater, it is most well known for the transfer of the Tony Award-winning original Broadway production of On Golden Pond in 1979. After becoming a private venue through the 1980s and remaining mostly closed through the 1990s and 2000s, it reemerged in 2013 after a 20-million-dollar renovation as a theater hosting the immersive production Queen of the Night. It is currently run as a live music performance venue showcasing audio and visual technology by Sony.

References

  1. "About Kaufman Music Center". Kaufman Music Center.
  2. http://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/ Merkin Hall official site
  3. Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center Archived 2010-04-28 at the Wayback Machine