Following on from his series on Carnegie Hall, Michael Lankester takes a detailed look at the history of New York’s Lincoln Center. In 1960 the Civil Rights Act was passed and just one year later a youthful John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president. The time was ripe. The concept of a new, thriving center of the arts in the middle of Manhattan was probably best presented by John D. Rockefeller when he stated, ‘The arts are not for the privileged few, but for the many. Their place is not on the periphery of daily life, but at its center.’ Lincoln Center now serves as home to ten resident arts organizations: New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Theater, Juilliard School, Film at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet.

And we shall visit them all! How they came into being, how they have survived and flourished through numerous additions and renovations, the music that has echoed through these halls, and the artists that have performed there.