About the Partners

Called “the concert hall of the century” by Musical America, Carnegie Hall has been presenting the world’s greatest soloists, ensembles, and orchestras since its founding in 1891. It has also hosted important jazz events, historic lectures, noted educational forums, and much more. Recent programming initiatives include several signature series: Making Music, featuring the work of living composers, who participate in these concerts with insightful commentary; Perspectives, in which select musicians are invited to explore their musical individuality and create their own concert series in collaboration with other artists; and Distinctive Debuts, Carnegie Hall’s partnership with Europe’s great concert halls, designed to give emerging talent international exposure. A Composer’s Chair was established in 1995, and the distinguished appointees to this position have served as important collaborators in many aspects of the Hall’s activities. Today, Carnegie Hall presents approximately 200 concerts each year—from orchestral performances, chamber music, recitals, and choral music to folk, world, musical theater, and jazz—and The Weill Music Institute produces more than 350 education events per season, reaching a broad audience in the New York metropolitan region, across the United States, and around the world.

Cal Performances is the largest presenter of performing arts in Northern California, and is considered one of the most influential performing arts centers in the nation. Its programmatic origins date back to 1906 when Sarah Bernhardt performed for earthquake refugees at the Hearst Greek Theatre. Since that time the organization has been known for its excellence and diversity, and under the direction of Robert Cole since 1986, Cal Performances has presented, commissioned and produced the work of performing artists, both renowned and emerging; John Adams, Peter Sellars, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Cecilia Bartoli, Mark Morris, Yo-Yo Ma, Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, and Lou Harrison are a few who have appeared regularly and premiered work at Cal Performances' home on the University of California, Berkeley campus. New music initiatives include the Composer Portrait series, a collaboration with the Miller Theater at Columbia University; the 20th Century Music & Beyond series of concerts; and the biennial Berkeley Edge Fest of new music, established with the Department of Music at UC Berkeley. In addition to the performance season, Cal Performances programs a full complement of educational activities on the campus, in local schools and in the broader community, and has been recognized nationally for its K-12 arts education programs.

The Sally and Don Lucas Artists Programs, an international, multi-disciplinary residency center, opened in the fall of 2004 within the Montalvo Arts Center. Built on the site of an old orchard, the complex was designed by six teams of artist and architect who together created ten discipline-specific live-and-work studios and one Commons building. The Lucas Artists Programs foster temporary communities of highly motivated, talented, committed, creative and critical minds from a range of disciplines and from different parts of the globe. Artists and thinkers are invited to work and reside in the Programs’ residency complex for a period of three months, during which time they work on a project, develop ideas, engage in creative thought and discussion with each other and in critical reflection on the world around us, develop collaborations, and otherwise advance their art and scholarship in myriad ways. Collaboration and network development form key emphases of the Programs, whether in the form of fellows working with each other, with Silicon Valley industry, with Montalvo’s education program and other departments, or through ties with Bay Area, national, and international arts, cultural, and academic institutions. The Lucas Artists Programs additionally sponsors conferences, colloquia, and other gatherings and special events, locally, nationally, and internationally.