Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM | |
 BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building (2013) | |
| Address | 30 Lafayette Avenue (Peter Jay Sharp) 651 Fulton Street (Harvey) 321 Ashland Place (Fisher) |
|---|---|
| Location | Brooklyn, New York |
| Public transit |            at Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center at Fulton Street at Lafayette Avenue |
| Type | Performing arts center |
| Capacity | Howard Gilman Opera House: 2,109 Lepercq Space: 350 Harvey Theater: 874 Fishman Space: 250 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1908 |
| Opened | 1908 |
| Website | |
www.bam.org | |
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
  Show map of New York City  Show map of New York  Show map of the US | |
| Location | 30 Lafayette Avenue Brooklyn, New York City |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: 40°41′11″N 73°58′41″W / 40.68639°N 73.97806°W / 40.68639; -73.97806 |
| Architect | Herts & Tallant |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival[2] |
| NRHP reference # | 06000251[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 2, 2006 |
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in 1908.
Today, BAM has a reputation as a leader in presenting "cutting edge" performance and has grown into an urban arts center which focuses on both international arts presentation and local community needs. Its purpose is to provide an environment in which its audiences – annually, more than 775,000 people – can experience a broad array of aesthetic and cultural programs. From 1999 to 2014, BAM was headed by Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, and Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer. Katy Clark is now president, succeeding Hopkins who retired in spring 2015.
Contents
1 History
1.1 19th and early 20th centuries
1.2 1960s–present
2 Architecture
3 Performance facilities (including non-music art)
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History
19th and early 20th centuries
Founded in 1861, the first BAM facility at 176–194 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights was conceived as the home of the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. The building, designed by architect Leopold Eidlitz, housed a large theater seating 2,200, a smaller concert hall, dressing and chorus rooms, and a vast "baronial" kitchen. BAM presented amateur and professional music and theater productions, including performers such as Ellen Terry, Edwin Booth, and Fritz Kreisler.
After the building burned to the ground on November 30, 1903,[3] plans were made to relocate to a new facility in the then fashionable neighborhood of Fort Greene. The cornerstone was laid at 30 Lafayette Avenue in 1906 and a series of opening events were held in the fall of 1908 culminating with a grand gala evening featuring Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso in a Metropolitan Opera production of Charles Gounod's Faust. The Met would continue to present seasons in Brooklyn, featuring star singers such as Caruso, right through until 1921.
The new building is adjacent to downtown Brooklyn, near the Atlantic Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road and the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, once the tallest building in Brooklyn.
1960s–present
In 1967, Harvey Lichtenstein was appointed executive director and during the 32 years that Lichtenstein was BAM's leader, BAM experienced a renaissance. BAM is now recognized internationally as a progressive cultural center well known for The Next Wave Festival (started in 1983). Artists who have presented their works there include Philip Glass, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, Lee Breuer, ETHEL, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Steve Reich, Seal, Alice in Chains, Robert Wilson, Peter Sellars, BLACKstreet, Ingmar Bergman, The Whirling Dervishes and the Kirov Opera directed and conducted by Valery Gergiev among others. Lichtenstein gave a home to the Chelsea Theater Center, in residence from 1967–1977. Another regular event is the BAM Cinema Fest, a film festival focusing on independent pictures.
Architecture
BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building houses the Howard Gilman Opera House and the BAM Rose Cinemas. It was designed by the firm Herts & Tallant in 1908. It is a "U" shaped building with an open court in the center of the lot between two theater wings above the first story. It measures 190 feet along Lafayette Avenue, 200 feet deep, and 70 feet high. The building has a high base of gray granite with cream colored brick trimmed in terra cotta with some marble detail above. It is located within the Fort Greene Historic District.[4]
Performance facilities (including non-music art)
Howard Gilman Opera House
BAM's facilities include:
In the Peter Jay Sharp Building, at 30 Lafayette Avenue:
- Howard Gilman Opera House, with 2,109 seats.
- Rose Cinemas (formerly the Carey Playhouse) opened in 1997, allowing Brooklynites the chance to see more art or independent films without having to go to Manhattan.
- Lepercq Space, originally BAM's ballroom, now a flexible event space and home to receptions, rentals, and BAMcafé. BAMcafé is open for dinner on nights when there is a performance in the Opera House. BAMcafé Live is a free series of live music performances on select Friday and Saturday nights.
- Hillman Attic Studio, a flexible rehearsal/performing space
In the BAM Harvey building, at 651 Fulton Street:
- Harvey Theater, with 874 seats, formerly known as the Majestic Theater, named in Lichtenstein's honor in 1999. A renovation by architect Hugh Hardy left the interior unpainted and with often exposed stonework, giving the theater a unique feel of a "modern ruin." In April 2014, CNN named the BAM Harvey as one of the "15 of the World's Most Spectacular Theaters." [5] Today, the BAM Harvey has become the first choice of venues at BAM among directors and actors for presenting traditional theater.[6]
In the Fisher Building, 321 Ashland Place:
- BAM Fishman Space, a 250-seat black box theater
- BAM Fisher Hillman Studio, a flexible rehearsal and performance space
The BAM Sharp and Fisher Buildings are located within the Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District created by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978; the BAM Harvey is not.[7]
See also
- List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
- List of concert halls
References
Notes
^ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009), Postal, Matthew A., ed., Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.), New York: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.243
^ Sharon (5 September 2011). "BAM blog: Introducing The BAM Hamm Archives". Retrieved 29 January 2018.
^ Kathy Howe (September 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Registration:Brooklyn Academy of Music". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
See also: "Accompanying 17 photos". Archived from the original on 2012-10-12.
and "Additional documentation including floor plans and photographs". Archived from the original on 2012-10-19.
^ Tamara Hinson, for CNN (22 April 2014). "15 of the world's most spectacular theaters". CNN. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
^ "BAM blog: The Majestic BAM Harvey Theater". bam150years.blogspot.com. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission "Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District Designation Report" Archived 2013-03-26 at the Wayback Machine. (September 26, 1978)
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brooklyn Academy of Music. |
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Brooklyn Academy of Music on NYC-ARTS.org
- Brooklyn Academy of Music on NYCkidsARTS.org
- Brooklyn Academy of Music at Google Cultural Institute
U.S. National Register of Historic Places in New York | ||
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