The New York Philharmonic’s Bandwagon 2 performance in Brooklyn, May 7. Photo: Erin Baiano
The New York Philharmonic “has produced a sequel to its mobile Bandwagon program, an avatar of a more nimble, responsive, community-connected organization,” writes Zachary Woolfe in Sunday’s (5/9) New York Times. “Bandwagon 2 is a step forward in sophistication. It’s a 20-foot shipping container with a foldout stage, an impressively sharp video wall and integrated, superb sound and lighting. After its first few days [in Brooklyn], it will travel [to] parks in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. The key element is giving over much of the time on this mobile stage to community organizations and artists…. This reflects a new sense of how our large legacy classical arts institutions should interact with their cities. Those interactions are not new for opera companies and orchestras, but they’ve often had a permeating sense of noblesse oblige…. Orchestras, taking stock of their privilege as wealthy, largely white entities, have begun to rethink the old model…. The Philharmonic’s partner this weekend was El Puente, a South Williamsburg organization that focuses on the arts as well as education, environmental advocacy and social justice…. There is hopefully a way of connecting the Philharmonic and New York in a way that’s rich and sustainable for the whole cultural ecosystem.”
