Carnegie Hall, after remaining dark throughout the coronavirus pandemic, will reopen its doors for an in-person 2021–2022 season launching in October. A host of stage favorites appear on the roster, including Wicked veteran Jessica Vosk, Tony winner Laura Benanti, and Tony nominee Norm Lewis.
Vosk will make her Carnegie Hall headlining debut with a November 8 program paying homage to the likes of Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, and Sara Vaughan. Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth will make a special guest appearance.
Benanti will help usher in the holiday season and the return of the New York Pops December 17. The Pops, under the baton of Music Director Steven Reineke, will also welcome jazz star Tony DeSare and Newsies alum Capathia Jenkins for a celebration of composer Nelson Riddle (February 4, 2022) and Lewis (March 4).
Meanwhile, Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives initiative will return with a series of programs curated by pianist-composer-bandleader Jon Batiste and violinist Leonidas Kavakos. The former will perform at the venue and across the city in 2022; Kavakos will present three concerts in the season, joined by the likes of Yuja Wang, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe takes the Composer’s Chair title in the 2021–2022 season, with three programs spotlighting her original works.
A citywide Afrofuturism festival held in February and March will aim to explore alternate realities through a Black cultural lens. The Hall has assembled a team of Afrofuturism scholars to shape the festival: Black Speculative Arts Movement Executive Director Reynaldo Anderson, Pew Fellowship recipient King James Britt, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way scribe Louis Chude-Sokei, author and poet Sheree Renée Thomas, and Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi & Fantasy Culture writer Ytasha L. Womack. Partnering organizations include the Apollo Theater, the Dramatists Guild, Harlem Stage, and National Black Theater.
Among the additional 100-plus programs in the lineup are performances from Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kauffman, Renée Fleming and Uma Thurman, and John Williams with Anne-Sophie Mutter. Visit CarnegieHall.org for more.
