13 Best Performing Arts in New York City, New York

Formerly known as Philharmonic Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, David Geffen Hall is the residence of the New York Philharmonic ( www.nyphil.org); the orchestra's season is September to June. The hall reopened in late 2022 after a two-year, $550 million renovation to its acoustics and public areas, including a new welcome center that is part ticket office, part lounge. The orchestra's Open Rehearsals are available to the public on selected weekday mornings at 9:45 am ($22 plus fees; usually Wednesday or Thursday) and select performances from inside the concert hall are streamed live, free of charge. A popular Young People's Concert series is on Saturday afternoons at 2 pm four times throughout the season. Lincoln Center presents Great Performers, Mostly Mozart Festival, and White Light Festival in this hall, too.

A few blocks south of Lincoln Center itself, this Columbus Circle venue is almost completely devoted to jazz, with a sprinkling of other genres mixed in. Stages in Rafael Viñoly's crisply modern Frederick P. Rose Hall include the 1,200-seat Rose Theater, where up-and-coming artists as well as jazz world fixtures like composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (the organization’s managing and artistic director), perform several times a year. Also here is The Appel Room, an elegant theater with a glass wall overlooking Columbus Circle. In the smaller Dizzy's Club, there are often multiple sets nightly, plus late-night sessions Tuesday through Saturday, all accompanied by a full bar and restaurant with a New Orleans–inspired menu.

The largest hall in Lincoln Center, the almost 3,800-seat Met is notable for its dramatic arched entrance, as well as its lobby's immense Swarovski crystal chandeliers and Marc Chagall paintings. The titan of American opera companies and an institution since its founding in 1883, the Metropolitan Opera brings the world's leading singers to its vast stage. All performances, including those sung in English, are subtitled on small screens on the back of the seat in front of you. A frequent resident of the Met (and sometimes, of the David H. Koch Theater) is the American Ballet Theatre ( www.abt.org), renowned for its gorgeous full-program renditions of 19th-century classics (Swan Lake,Giselle,The Sleeping Beauty) with choreography re-envisioned by 20th-century or contemporary masters.  A limited number of same-day $25 rush orchestra seats are available at the Met's website. These tickets go on sale for weeknight performances at noon, for matinees four hours before curtain, and for Saturday evenings at 2 pm. There's also an annual free outdoor HD Festival, with screenings of recorded operas on an immense screen covering the facade, and thousands of chairs in the plaza area. Backstage tours of the Met ($35), when available, are held during the performance season, and require advance online reservation.

Home to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center ( www.chambermusicsociety.org) since it opened in 1969, Alice Tully Hall has top-notch acoustics. A three-story glass lobby with a bar and café greets patrons, before they settle in for a performance inside the warm, even intimate 1,086-seat Starr Theater.

Opened in 1929 as a movie theater, the Beacon is now the premier destination north of Madison Square Garden (and operated by the same company) for concerts and residencies by music stars and comedians, from Bono to Jerry Seinfeld. The decor is 1920s; the sound system is 2020s. There also are occasional family program on weekend afternoons.

Designed by master architect Philip Johnson and considered one of the world's top theaters for dance, the David H. Koch Theater is the home of the formidable New York City Ballet ( www.nycballet.com), which has a roster of more than 90 dancers, a 62-piece orchestra, and an unmatched repertory of modern masterpieces, including landmark works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins. NYCB performs at the theater for 21 weeks each year, including fall, winter, and spring repertory seasons, with Thanksgiving through New Year’s devoted to the annual production of Balanchine's The Nutcracker. The theater also hosts other internationally famous dance troupes throughout the year, as well as White Light Festival performances.

To get oriented at Lincoln Center, start across the street, on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets, at the David Rubenstein Atrium. Here you'll find free Wi-Fi, tables, a café, a Tkts booth, and that rarest of NYC commodities: a public restroom. There are regular free musical and dance performances, as well as discussions and spoken-word programs throughout the week, and programs for families and kids on the weekends. Day-of-show discounted tickets for many Lincoln Center venues may be purchased in person here; there is a limit of four tickets per customer. 

Dedicated to elevating the art of cinema, Film at Lincoln Center presents series devoted to "the best in world cinema,” including silents, documentaries, retrospectives, and recent releases, at the 267-seat Walter Reade Theater and at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, which features two auditoriums, a café, and an amphitheater that hosts talks and panel discussions. Its two annual international film festivals—the iconic New York Film Festival and the New Directors/New Films, which celebrates up-and-coming cinematic artists—are both world-class.

This aptly named series of public concerts is inspired by a wide range of musical traditions and performed in St. John the Divine's massive, atmospheric, Gothic-style space. The program showcases composers and performers of choral and instrumental music, often to sold-out crowds.

A destination for both old-school and cutting-edge musical performances, this concert hall around the corner from Lincoln Center is a lovely, acoustically advanced, 450-seater that presents chamber pieces. It's also known for jazz, world, new music, and especially its Ecstatic Music Festival (dates vary year-to-year), when an eclectic group of indie classical artists more than live up to their billing.

Adventurous jazz, classical, early and modern music, and dance programming makes up the calendar at this Columbia University theater, founded in 1988. A well-designed 688-seater, this is a hall that rewards serious listeners.

In addition to maintaining what may be the world's largest collection of theater, film, dance, music, and recorded sound, the library presents concerts and mounts periodic exhibitions related to major artists and composers. At the library’s free, year-round Silent Clowns series ( www.silentclowns.com), held Saturday afternoon each month in its auditorium, rarely seen prints of the silent era’s comedy masters are paired with live piano music.

Although Symphony Space runs an energetic roster of classical, jazz, international, and other kinds of music, it also excels with other kinds of arts programming. On the literary front, its two halls—the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre and the Leonard Nimoy Thalia—host a celebrated roster of events including Bloomsday on Broadway, the Thalia Book Club, and the famed Selected Shorts series (stories read by prominent actors and produced as a podcast and radio show on National Public Radio). There's also a popular comedy series, Uptown Showdown, as well as Performance in HD screenings—from the National Theatre Live, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Royal Opera House—and Secret Science Club North science talks. Plays, films, and "Thalia Docs" (usually true-to-their-roots art-house screenings) round out the programming.