Brooklyn Academy of Music
Encyclopedia
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a major performing arts
venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City
, United States
, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in 1908. Today, BAM has a worldwide reputation as a leader in artistic innovation and has grown into a model urban arts center focused on both international issues in the arts and local community needs.
Its enduring purpose is to provide a distinctive environment in which its audiences—annually, more than 550,000 people from New York City and beyond—may experience a broad array of aesthetic and cultural programs. BAM’s activities have been conducted under the leadership of Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, and Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer, for over 25 years.
in attendance
1864: The Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair is held to raise money for the US Sanitary Commission aiding sick and wounded Union Civil War soldiers
1884: Mark Twain
& George W. Cable entertain with readings and storytelling
1891: Booker T. Washington
delivers a speech on full emancipation
1903: The first Brooklyn Academy of Music burns to the ground
1908: Brooklyn Academy of Music opens new home on Lafayette Ave (Fort Greene); gala features Met Opera (Geraldine Farrar
/Enrico Caruso in Gounod’s Faust)
1908: Isadora Duncan
dances with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Orchestra
1917: Sarah Bernhardt
gives six performances in three days at the age of 73, despite an amputated leg
1931: Paul Robeson
gives a song recital
1936: Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences merges with Brooklyn Academy of Music
1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
appears to packed crowds with 2,200 in the Opera House, 700 onstage, and 6,000 outside in the street
1948: Pearl Primus
and Company dance her experiences of Africa
1952: Physical deterioration necessitates the removal of the cornice at 30 Lafayette Avenue. A rescue plan includes paying New York City a rent of $1 / year for 100 years
1962: Rudolf Nureyev
makes his American debut with the Chicago Opera Ballet shortly after defecting from the Soviet Union
1967: Harvey Lichtenstein
is appointed president of the Academy
1968: Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs its first extended New York season
1969: Robert Wilson
makes his BAM debut with The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud
1971: The Royal Shakespeare Company makes its BAM debut with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Peter Brook
1973: BAM’s newly renovated ballroom is formally dedicated as the Lepercq Space, named after Paul Lepercq, chairman of the board
1977: A month before the fall season, a 30-inch city water main under Ashland Place bursts, causing severe flooding
1977: BAM presents the inaugural DanceAfrica
, created by Chuck Davis, the country’s largest celebration of African-American dance
1981: Next Wave series debuts with the Trisha Brown
, Laura Dean
, and Lucinda Childs
dance companies and Philip Glass
’ opera Satyagraha
1983: Laurie Anderson
makes her BAM debut with United States: Parts I—IV in the second season of the Next Wave series
1983: Next Wave Festival is launched with The Photographer/Far from the Truth, by Philip Glass & JoAnne Akalaitis
1984: Pina Bausch
’s Tanztheater Wuppertal makes its BAM debut with The Rite of Spring, 1980, Café Müller, and Bluebeard’s Castle
1987: BAM produces its first Martin Luther King Jr. tribute with the Brooklyn borough president’s office
1987: BAM Majestic Theater is inaugurated with Peter Brook’s nine-hour-long The Mahabharata
1989: American premiere of Jean-Baptiste Lully
’s Atys with Théâtre National de l’Opéra de Paris features BAM debut of William Christie
& Les Arts Florissants
1992: American debut of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut
1995: Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden returns as part of a city-wide Bergman Festival with 350+ events; BAM’s Karen Brooks Hopkins is executive producer
1997: BAMcafé opens in BAM Lepercq Space
1998: The Carey Playhouse is converted to four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas, home to BAMcinématek, featuring repertory, independent, and foreign films
1998: Ballett Frankfurt first appears at BAM In EIDOS : TELOS choreographed by William Forsythe
1999: Harvey Lichtenstein retires and is succeeded by Karen Brooks Hopkins (president) & Joseph V. Melillo (executive producer)
1999: Majestic Theater renamed BAM Harvey Theater in honor of Harvey Lichtenstein in conjunction with endowment gift from Doris Duke Charitable Trust
1999: BAMcafé Live begins programming free weekend music in the Lepercq Space
2002: Fiona Shaw
plays title role of Euripides’ Medea, directed by Deborah Warner; following its BAM run the Abbey Theatre production moves to Broadway
2003: Royal National Theatre / Market Theatre of Johannesburg production of The Island, originally directed by Athol Fugard, with John Kani & Winston Ntshona
2005: Eat, Drink & Be Literary begins first season in partnership with the National Book Awards in BAMcafé
2006: Robert Redford inaugurates Sundance Institute at BAM, a three-year partnership
2006: BAM celebrates Steve Reich @ 70, including choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Akram Khan
2007: Visual artist William Kentridge directs his interpretation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute
2007: Sufjan Stevens performs The BQE, a Next Wave Festival commission exploring New York’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
2008: Paul Simon performs in three BAM-produced concert engagements in a month-long residency, Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon
2009: BAM launches the Bridge Project, a transatlantic partnership with London’s Old Vic and Neal Street Productions; productions of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, directed by Sam Mendes, open at BAM before touring the globe
2009: BAMcinemafest is inaugurated, featuring independent films and repertory cinema from around the world
2009: Cate Blanchett plays Blanche Dubois in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann
2010: Ground is broken on the BAM Richard B. Fisher Building, named in his honor by his widow, Jeannie Donovan Fisher, with substantial support from NYC
2010: Alexei Ratmansky creates a new version of The Nutcracker for American Ballet Theatre’s five-year seasonal residency at BAM
2010: DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State produced by BAM, showcases contemporary American dance abroad; the first tours features Evidence, ODC/Dance, and Urban Bush Women
2011: BAM celebrates ¡Sí Cuba!, a citywide festival of Cuban culture, with BAM presentations of Creole Choir and Ballet Nacional de Cuba
2011: BAM’s 150th anniversary celebration begins with the restaging of the landmark production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Atys, conducted by William Christie with Les Arts Florissants
. 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
, Tomas Salvini, and Fritz Kreisler
.
After the building burned to the ground on November 30, 1903, 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.
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
, 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.
BAM is currently under the leadership of President Karen Brooks Hopkins and Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo.
with cream colored brick trimmed in terra cotta
with some marble
detail above. It is located within the Fort Greene Historic District
.
, the new building’s sustainable features will include: no- or low-volatile organic compound materials, use of day-lighting and sun shades, storm water collection and re-use, energy efficient mechanical and lighting systems, building management systems, and a green roof. Once complete, the BAM Fisher Building will be an affordable venue for hosting performances by emerging talent, community events, and educational programs.
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in 1908. Today, BAM has a worldwide reputation as a leader in artistic innovation and has grown into a model urban arts center focused on both international issues in the arts and local community needs.
Its enduring purpose is to provide a distinctive environment in which its audiences—annually, more than 550,000 people from New York City and beyond—may experience a broad array of aesthetic and cultural programs. BAM’s activities have been conducted under the leadership of Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, and Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer, for over 25 years.
Quick Facts
- BAM is America's oldest performing arts center, founded in 1861.
- In 2008, BAM had a record breaking attendance of 550,000.
- BAM is a not-for-profit organization reliant on contributions to fulfill its mission.
- BAM presents or produces up to 220 stage performances each year, many of international origin.
- BAM has a four-screen cinema, open 365 days a year, presenting new releases and BAMcinématek repertory films.
- During its first century, BAM hosted political events, speeches, and rallies on the pressing issues of the day. Speakers included Henry Beecher Stowe, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Amelia Earhart.
- BAMcafé Live features up to 75 free performances annually.
- BAM has an in-house restaurant and bar.
- BAM Education serves up to 24,000 students and 200 New York City schools annually.
- BAM hosts The Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the largest commemoration event to Dr. King in New York City.
Timeline
1861: The Academy of Music on Montague Street is inaugurated on January 15, with a program including Mozart and Verdi. Mercadante’s Il Giuramento, the first opera performance, appears one week later with First Lady Mary Todd LincolnMary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
in attendance
1864: The Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair is held to raise money for the US Sanitary Commission aiding sick and wounded Union Civil War soldiers
1884: Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
& George W. Cable entertain with readings and storytelling
1891: Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
delivers a speech on full emancipation
1903: The first Brooklyn Academy of Music burns to the ground
1908: Brooklyn Academy of Music opens new home on Lafayette Ave (Fort Greene); gala features Met Opera (Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...
/Enrico Caruso in Gounod’s Faust)
1908: Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
dances with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Orchestra
1917: Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
gives six performances in three days at the age of 73, despite an amputated leg
1931: Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
gives a song recital
1936: Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences merges with Brooklyn Academy of Music
1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
appears to packed crowds with 2,200 in the Opera House, 700 onstage, and 6,000 outside in the street
1948: Pearl Primus
Pearl Primus
Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the needs to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance...
and Company dance her experiences of Africa
1952: Physical deterioration necessitates the removal of the cornice at 30 Lafayette Avenue. A rescue plan includes paying New York City a rent of $1 / year for 100 years
1962: Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
makes his American debut with the Chicago Opera Ballet shortly after defecting from the Soviet Union
1967: Harvey Lichtenstein
Harvey Lichtenstein
Harvey Lichtenstein is a retired American dancer and arts administrator, best known for his 32-year tenure as executive director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music....
is appointed president of the Academy
1968: Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs its first extended New York season
1969: Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
makes his BAM debut with The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud
1971: The Royal Shakespeare Company makes its BAM debut with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
1973: BAM’s newly renovated ballroom is formally dedicated as the Lepercq Space, named after Paul Lepercq, chairman of the board
1977: A month before the fall season, a 30-inch city water main under Ashland Place bursts, causing severe flooding
1977: BAM presents the inaugural DanceAfrica
DanceAfrica
DanceAfrica is a heritage and community celebration centered on the diverse dance forms of the African Diaspora held annually in New York City, Washington, DC, and Chicago...
, created by Chuck Davis, the country’s largest celebration of African-American dance
1981: Next Wave series debuts with the Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown is a postmodernist American choreographer and dancer.Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a B.A. degree in dance from Mills College in 1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with Louis Horst at the American Dance...
, Laura Dean
Laura Dean
Laura Dean is a dancer, choreographer and composer.Dean is the recipient of many awards including the 2008 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. She has also received a "Bessie" New York Dance Award for her work with composer Steve Reich...
, and Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
dance companies and Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
’ opera Satyagraha
1983: Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
makes her BAM debut with United States: Parts I—IV in the second season of the Next Wave series
1983: Next Wave Festival is launched with The Photographer/Far from the Truth, by Philip Glass & JoAnne Akalaitis
1984: Pina Bausch
Pina Bausch
Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...
’s Tanztheater Wuppertal makes its BAM debut with The Rite of Spring, 1980, Café Müller, and Bluebeard’s Castle
1987: BAM produces its first Martin Luther King Jr. tribute with the Brooklyn borough president’s office
1987: BAM Majestic Theater is inaugurated with Peter Brook’s nine-hour-long The Mahabharata
1989: American premiere of Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
’s Atys with Théâtre National de l’Opéra de Paris features BAM debut of William Christie
William Christie (musician)
William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
& Les Arts Florissants
Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)
Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamber orchestra...
1992: American debut of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut
The Hard Nut
The Hard Nut is an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker choreographed by Mark Morris. It took its inspiration from the comic artist Charles Burns...
1995: Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden returns as part of a city-wide Bergman Festival with 350+ events; BAM’s Karen Brooks Hopkins is executive producer
1997: BAMcafé opens in BAM Lepercq Space
1998: The Carey Playhouse is converted to four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas, home to BAMcinématek, featuring repertory, independent, and foreign films
1998: Ballett Frankfurt first appears at BAM In EIDOS : TELOS choreographed by William Forsythe
1999: Harvey Lichtenstein retires and is succeeded by Karen Brooks Hopkins (president) & Joseph V. Melillo (executive producer)
1999: Majestic Theater renamed BAM Harvey Theater in honor of Harvey Lichtenstein in conjunction with endowment gift from Doris Duke Charitable Trust
1999: BAMcafé Live begins programming free weekend music in the Lepercq Space
2002: Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
plays title role of Euripides’ Medea, directed by Deborah Warner; following its BAM run the Abbey Theatre production moves to Broadway
2003: Royal National Theatre / Market Theatre of Johannesburg production of The Island, originally directed by Athol Fugard, with John Kani & Winston Ntshona
2005: Eat, Drink & Be Literary begins first season in partnership with the National Book Awards in BAMcafé
2006: Robert Redford inaugurates Sundance Institute at BAM, a three-year partnership
2006: BAM celebrates Steve Reich @ 70, including choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Akram Khan
2007: Visual artist William Kentridge directs his interpretation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute
2007: Sufjan Stevens performs The BQE, a Next Wave Festival commission exploring New York’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
2008: Paul Simon performs in three BAM-produced concert engagements in a month-long residency, Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon
2009: BAM launches the Bridge Project, a transatlantic partnership with London’s Old Vic and Neal Street Productions; productions of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, directed by Sam Mendes, open at BAM before touring the globe
2009: BAMcinemafest is inaugurated, featuring independent films and repertory cinema from around the world
2009: Cate Blanchett plays Blanche Dubois in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann
2010: Ground is broken on the BAM Richard B. Fisher Building, named in his honor by his widow, Jeannie Donovan Fisher, with substantial support from NYC
2010: Alexei Ratmansky creates a new version of The Nutcracker for American Ballet Theatre’s five-year seasonal residency at BAM
2010: DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State produced by BAM, showcases contemporary American dance abroad; the first tours features Evidence, ODC/Dance, and Urban Bush Women
2011: BAM celebrates ¡Sí Cuba!, a citywide festival of Cuban culture, with BAM presentations of Creole Choir and Ballet Nacional de Cuba
2011: BAM’s 150th anniversary celebration begins with the restaging of the landmark production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Atys, conducted by William Christie with Les Arts Florissants
Early History
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 BrooklynBrooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
. The building, designed by architect Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz was a prominent New York architect best known for his work on the New York State Capitol , as well as "Iranistan" , P. T. Barnum's house in Bridgeport, Connecticut; St. Peter's Church, on Westchester Avenue at St...
, 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
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, Edwin Booth
Edwin Booth
Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...
, Tomas Salvini, and Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
.
After the building burned to the ground on November 30, 1903, 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
Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...
and Enrico Caruso in a Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
production of Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
. 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
Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City , and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn...
, near the Atlantic Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
and the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower
Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at 1 Hanson Place is the second tallest building in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City and a familiar Brooklyn landmark....
, once the tallest building in Brooklyn.
Post-1960s History
In 1967 Harvey LichtensteinHarvey Lichtenstein
Harvey Lichtenstein is a retired American dancer and arts administrator, best known for his 32-year tenure as executive director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music....
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
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
, Pina Bausch
Pina Bausch
Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...
, Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
, Laurie Anderson, Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer is an American academic, educator, film maker, poet, lyricist, writer and stage director.-Work with Mabou Mines:Lee Breuer is a founding artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company in New York City, which he began in 1970 with colleagues Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne...
, ETHEL
Ethel (string quartet)
ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...
, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
, Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell and original lead vocalist Layne Staley. The initial lineup was rounded out by drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr...
, Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
, BLACKstreet
BLACKstreet
Blackstreet is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, the inventor of New Jack Swing known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro and were merged into what...
, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
, The Whirling Dervishes and the Kirov Opera directed and conducted by Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
among others. Lichtenstein gave a home to the Chelsea Theater Center
Chelsea Theater Center
The Chelsea Theater Center was a not-for-profit theater company founded in 1965 by Robert Kalfin, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. It opened its doors in a church in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, then moved to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1968, where it was in residence for ten...
, in residence from 1967-1977.
BAM is currently under the leadership of President Karen Brooks Hopkins and Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo.
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 graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
with cream colored brick trimmed in terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
with some marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
detail above. It is located within the Fort Greene Historic District
Fort Greene Historic District
Fort Greene Historic District is a national historic district in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It consists of 1,158 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, one contributing object, and two contributing structures...
.
Richard B. Fisher Building
Scheduled to open in September 2012, the Richard B. Fisher Building is currently under construction adjacent to the Peter Jay Sharp Building. Also designed by Hugh HardyHugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....
, the new building’s sustainable features will include: no- or low-volatile organic compound materials, use of day-lighting and sun shades, storm water collection and re-use, energy efficient mechanical and lighting systems, building management systems, and a green roof. Once complete, the BAM Fisher Building will be an affordable venue for hosting performances by emerging talent, community events, and educational programs.
Performance Facilities
BAM's facilities feature:- BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, with 2,109 seats.
- BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater, with 874 seats, formerly known as the Majestic Theater, named in Lichtenstein's honor in 1999. A renovation by architect Hugh HardyHugh HardyHugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....
left the interior unpainted and with often exposed stonework, giving theater a unique feel of a "modern ruin".
- BAM Rose Cinemas opened in 1997, allowing Brooklynites the chance to see more art films without having to go to ManhattanManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
- The Lepercq Space, originally conceived as 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.
- BAM Hillman Attic Studio, a flexible rehearsal/performing space.