Broadway may still be dark for the summer, but just a few avenues down 42nd Street, live performances are returning in a big way to Bryant Park.
With support from Bank of America, the park’s Picnic Performances will be bringing 25 live, in-person events to the park, many featuring performers from the city’s top arts institutions. (The events will also be available to livestream.)
The 2021 season is set to kick off on June 9 with a four-night run of back-to-back shows by musicians from the New York Philharmonic and will close on September 20 with an event that will serve as a 100th-anniversary celebration for The Town Hall. Also planned this summer are concerts produced in partnership with Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Opera, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Joe’s Pub, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Limón Dance Company, Elisa Monte Dance, National Sawdust, Harlem Stage with Jazzmobile and Historic Harlem Parks, Greenwich House Music School, New York Chinese Cultural Center, Music from the Sole, and more.
All of the outdoor concerts will be free and open to the public. The park will observe all current safety protocols for the event and also provide enough room for social distancing (audience registration will be required in advance.)
Here's the official schedule:
June and July:
The New York Philharmonic: Four Nights in Bryant Park (6/9 to 6/12)
New York City Opera: Pride in the Park (6/18) and Carmen (7/2)
New York Chinese Cultural Center (6/25)
Joe’s Pub: Mykal Kilgore (6/26)
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely (7/9);
Spanish Harlem Orchestra (7/16); The Knights (7/23); Adrienne Warren & Friends (7/30)
Greenwich House Music School: Riley Mulherkar and Ella Bric (7/31)
August and September:
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective
with the Turtle Island Quartet (8/6)
Harlem Stage: Craig Harris’s Nocturnal Nubian Ball… - A Tribute to Sun Ra (8/12)
Jazz at Lincoln Center: Evenings with Dizzy’s Club (8/13 + 8/14)
Limón Dance Company and Music from the Sole (8/16)
Paul Taylor Dance Company and Elisa Monte Dance (8/20)
New York City Opera: Now That’s What I Call Opera! (8/21); Rigoletto (9/3)
Classical Theatre of Harlem (9/10)
National Sawdust: Allison Loggins-Hull’s Diametrically Composed (9/17)
The Town Hall: Celebrating 100 Years with Chris Thile and more (9/20)