Renovation costing over $500M revitalizes sound quality of Lincoln Center theater
UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- It has been a couple of months since David Geffen Hall reopened at Lincoln Center after a renovation worth over half a billion dollars.
The reviews are in and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. That's all the more sweet given the decades it took to make the hall sound right.
I was quite simply blown away by the clarity of the sound and the warmth of the tone. A recent night there left me so impressed that I knew I had to share my enthusiasm with all of you.
I am on the receiving end of so much hype, but in this case, the joy of the experience more than matches the words used to advertise it.
Since the day the hall opened, this space had been plagued by bad acoustics.
"In the old hall, it was challenging for us to play, to do our jobs. I mean it was hard for us to hear each other. It was hard for the audience to hear us," musician Ryan Roberts said.
Roberts is relatively new here. Hae-Young ham has plated with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for decades.
"I felt a lot of times very distant and isolated from the audience in the old hall whereas here you feel very intimate," Ham detailed.
Deborah Borda is the orchestra's president and CEO, who dreamt for decades of the moment when David Geffen Hall would finally be ready.
"I knew from the first notes in the hall that we had a winner, and we were all standing here in tears, and those tears were real, but tears of joy," Borda said.
Yet, she admits unfinished business still remains. This is why the public can watch concerts for free on a giant video wall.
As someone who grew up in Jackson Heights, Borda recognizes the value of diversity in the orchestra's programming.
There is a new vision to match the new hall.
The hall has been packed this holiday season.
Eyewitness News reporter Janice Yu took her husband, Owen, her mother and her sister to a concert last week. Janice told me she's never heard anything quite like the new David Geffen Hall.
I can only agree. You don't even have to know much about music to appreciate what a splendid addition this is to our neighborhood here, but also the entire city of New York.
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