NEW YORK, NY.- Today, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts officially launches a yearlong celebration of its 50th Anniversary with a commemorative ceremony in the Starr Theater at Alice Tully Hall. Hosted by renowned journalist and author Tom Brokaw, the program pays tribute to the many achievements and contributions of Lincoln Center, from the milestones of its past half century to the transformation of its campus. Celebrating the past and looking ahead to a new generation, the program includes appearances by established and upcoming artists affiliated with Lincoln Center, with remarks by institutional leadership and elected officials. In a special performance, members of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by music director designate Alan Gilbert, are recreating the Philharmonic’s historic performance of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man from Lincoln Center’s 1959 groundbreaking with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Also scheduled to participate are: Senator Charles E. Schumer, Governor David A. Paterson, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Chairman, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Broadway and TV star, soprano Audra McDonald; violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, with alumni of the Perlman Music Program; world-famous jazz musician and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center; with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Philanthropist David Rockefeller, whose brother, the late John D. Rockefeller 3rd, spearheaded the campaign to create Lincoln Center, will be in the audience, as will members of the New York Philharmonic who played at the 1959 groundbreaking and students from the first graduating class of High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, which is affiliated with the Lincoln Center Institute.

The entire event is being streamed live onto Lincoln Center’s website, www.LincolnCenter.org, and on the evening of May 11, the Tower Lights of the Empire State Building will be lit in Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary colors of magenta and orange.

Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wielded his shovel at the official groundbreaking of Lincoln Center, the nation’s first major cultural complex. Since that time, Lincoln Center, with its 12 resident organizations, has become the world’s largest performing arts center and has pioneered the concept of a performing arts campus as a catalyst for urban renewal. It has become a model for performing arts centers around the world and has contributed to the cultural and economic evolution of the city, the state, and the nation.

“It is with great excitement that we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Lincoln Center,” said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Chairman, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “We celebrate Lincoln Center’s glorious past and the extraordinary promise of an institution that is in the midst of the most profound and impactful changes in its history. Since its founding, Lincoln Center has served tens of millions of people, and soon its revitalized campus will attract even more visitors and encourage them to come more often and stay longer.”

”This is truly a transformative time for Lincoln Center – both artistically and institutionally,” said Reynold Levy, President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “Transformative, not just because we are renovating our halls and upgrading our public spaces, but also because we are completely reimagining what a performing arts center can be for today’s world, just as the founders did 50 years ago.”

Said Governor Paterson, “New York is the cultural capital of the world and Lincoln Center embodies the best that our city and state has to offer. For fifty years, Lincoln Center has served as a premiere destination for patrons from around the world and its recent transformation will ensure that it remains that way for another fifty years. Lincoln Center is more than just a performing arts center; it has long served as an economic engine for New York and a model for cultural institutions across our country. I am truly pleased to celebrate this milestone and I urge New Yorkers to take advantage of the fantastic 50th Anniversary programming that Lincoln Center will offer throughout 2009 and beyond.”

"Lincoln Center has contributed to New York City and America's culture like no other performing arts center in the nation," said Senator Schumer. "I am so proud to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Lincoln Center and the contribution it has made to the performing arts. I know that the future will be as bright as the past been has been for Lincoln Center."

The Anniversary celebration coincides with the ongoing physical transformation of Lincoln Center, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FXFOWLE, which is making the 16-acre campus a more open, accessible and vibrant urban destination. The “Dancing in Air Studios” at the School of American Ballet and Alice Tully Hall have been completed. In addition, a new Visitors Space designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects will be completed this fall, offering a lively community gathering place with a staffed visitor information desk, free performances, a café, restrooms, free internet access, and discounted tickets for available Lincoln center performances.

Among the other redevelopment highlights are: the ongoing redesign and expansion of the Juilliard School; the reconfiguration and rejuvenation of Lincoln Center’s primary entryway along Columbus Avenue, with a new canopied drop-off and ramps framing a widened Grand Stair; an upgrade of the iconic Josie Robertson Plaza, its central Revson Fountain and its distinctive patterned pavement designed by Philip Johnson; a new mini-park welcoming visitors at the south end of the campus; the enhancement of West 65th Street, which will extend the threshold of Lincoln Center with the addition of expanded sidewalks, digital informational blades, dramatic lighting and a new street-level identity for many of the resident organizations; and the addition of an elegant new restaurant with a gently sloping roof lawn, oriented toward Lincoln Center’s iconic reflecting pool and Henry Moore sculpture, which will serve as one of the many new green spaces on campus. The overall redevelopment initiative has been designed to renovate, modernize, and open up Lincoln Center to the benefit of virtually all of its artists, students, and visitors