David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center is one of New York City’s leading classical music halls. The home of the New York Philharmonic also hosts jazz and global music concerts.
Latin Culture at David Geffen Hall
SEPTEMBER
The New York Philharmonic opens its 2025-26 Season with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel featuring South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition (2022). The concert features the World Premiere “of light and stone” by Indigenous Hawaiian composer Leilehua Lanzilotti, plus Bartók’s Piano Concert No. 3 in E major, and Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2; at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center, Manhattan; on Thursday-Saturday, September 11-13 and Tuesday, September 16, 2025, all dates at 7:30pm. 🇺🇸 🇰🇷 🇻🇪
This is an interesting set of compositions that offer something for every musical taste. Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2 is very much in the familiar classical tradition. Bartók’s Piano Concert No. 3 in E major is filled with his fiery modern energy. Interestingly Bartók is famed for his studies of folk and ethnic music traditions. Lanzilotti’s “of light and stone” brings the Philharmonic into the present and the future.
Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli, an Indigenous Hawaiian composer and multimedia artist. Her compositions blend European art music traditions with her own cultural framework. The results can sound familiar or be a wonderful surprise. It gives her a truly unique voice.
You shouldn’t consider Indigenous art the same way you consider European art. European art is decorative. Indigenous art is spiritual. It’s not a representation of spirituality, but rather a container of spiritual energy itself. Even the Hawaiian word “aloha” doesn’t just mean hello or goodbye. It’s a declaration of peace and love that emphasizes harmony with the natural world.
I haven’t spoken with Lanzilotti, but think her work’s title “of light and stone” represents a blending of the past written in stone, and the present written in light. Both the stone and the light are spiritual containers. The title invites us to respect both the past and the present in order to create the best possible future.
Gustavo Dudamel also balances tradition and modernity in unexpected ways. Traditional classical music can be old-fashioned and elitist, but Dudamel makes it fresh and new. He is known for building communities that are diverse and young. It’s the opposite of the old way of thinking. “Aloha Gustavo.”
About David Geffen Hall
The Hall was originally called Philharmonic Hall when it opened in 1962. The New York Philharmonic moved in from its former home at Carnegie Hall.
It was renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 1973. Avery Robert Fisher (1906-1994) was a sound engineer and philanthropist from Brooklyn who founded Fisher Radio, a pioneer in high-fidelity audio. The Fisher family later allowed Lincoln Center to resell the naming rights to finance a long-planned renovation.
The Hall was renamed David Geffen Hall in 2015. David Geffen is a renowned music and film producer and a philanthropist originally from Brooklyn. He co-founded Asylum Records in 1971. Geffen is a partner of movie studio DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
The renovated New David Geffen Hall reopened in 2022. Wu Tsai Theater is the main hall. It’s named for the Taiwanese Canadian owners of the Alibaba Group and the Brooklyn Nets.
The Hall reopened with Caribbean and Latin American cleansing traditions dedicated to Oyá, the Yoruba orisha of death and rebirth, and jazz dedicated to the people of San Juan Hill that Lincoln Center displaced (as seen in the Broadway play and movie “West Side Story”). The Hall reopened with better acoustics, engaging seating, and more inclusive and adventurous programming. It’s a great renovation.
Dress code varies from gala fabulous to business casual, but don’t you love to dress up?
David Geffen Hall Tickets
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza
(at Columbus & 64th St)
Lincoln Center, Manhattan
(212) 721-6500
It’s the big theater on the right side of Hearst Plaza, Lincoln Center’s main plaza.