Thanks to the pandemic, the David Geffen Hall in New York will reopen in advance

Closed since March 2020, the room will reopen in fall 2022, a year and a half before the scheduled date. The Covid-19 epidemic helped speed up the renovation.

This is one of the – rare – good news related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The David Geffen Hall, concert hall that hosts theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra, will be able to reopen a year and a half earlier than expected, relates the New-York Times. Its closure, since March 2020, has given a boost to a renovation that has been postponed many times, with a budget of $ 550 million.

“In 2020, and rightly so, people were on their minds, and we had other challenges to overcome”, highlighted Henry Timms, the president of Lincoln Center. “But at the end of the year, the opportunity became obvious: could we reopen early? During this period, many people indeed decided to support the project, because they saw it as the ‘story of a rebirth: a way to invest in both economic and human healing of the city. ”

Current work at David Geffen Hall aims to change its configuration, in particular to bring spectators closer to musicians thanks to a so-called “vineyard” structure, with balconies all around the stage. Even before the renovations are complete, the New York Philharmonic will start performing again next season in other venues: Alice Tully Hall and the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, as well as Carnegie Hall.

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