As the Artistic And Executive Director of Carnegie Hall, Clive Gillinson has run one of the most iconic music venues in New York – and the world – since 2005.  Before that he was Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s (for which he eventually became Sir Clive Gillinson). In both places he has led groundbreaking programs to bring music and arts to communities that have traditionally been underserved by the classical music world.  Under his leadership in the past 15 years, Carnegie Hall has undertaken a wide variety of projects, including Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy in 2009, Voices from Latin America in 2012, and ongoing education and community outreach programs that reach across the metropolitan area.

The below is part of our New York City Tomorrow series, where we're asking New Yorkers — given that this is an opportunity for real change — to share their utopian (but often realistic) ideas of how the city could look in the future. For his contribution, Gillinson submitted this essay.

More than any event in our lifetime, the economic and health challenges posed by COVID-19 have created a dangerous threat to Carnegie Hall and arts institutions everywhere.  On top of that, we’re now living with the consequences of the appalling murder of George Floyd, only the most recent example of the systemic racism that has plagued the United States since the advent of slavery 400 years ago. This has transformed what was already a dire situation into a monumental challenge that must be addressed by all of us.

Our primary responsibility in responding to this pandemic has to be to ensure the survival and ultimately the vigorous health of our institutions, ensuring their future ability to serve people and transform lives across our communities.  However, as with all crises, I believe this is also a time of great opportunity.  Whatever else comes out of this period, we will have failed ourselves and the communities we serve if we do not emerge with enhanced commitments to key societal challenges that all of us are committed to addressing, and as even more effective, efficient, and resilient organizations.  The ferocity of the situation is forcing us to examine the way that we run every single aspect of our businesses, from the largest to the smallest, separating nice from necessary and jettisoning anything that we do not consider absolutely central to our missions.

Now, on to our dreams of the future!  Overall, the greatly accelerated expansion into the digital space during this time will yield exciting new ways for arts institutions to serve audiences, and these need to be devised so that when live music returns, they complement and enhance the live experience, and engage and serve people far beyond New York City.  However while digital has and will continue to have much to offer, I don’t think it can or will ever replace the power and impact of live music, and that especially post-pandemic, people will be hungry to physically explore their city once again, taking advantage of everything New York City has to offer.  It is up to all of us to ensure their cultural journeys are varied, thrilling and irresistible!

The TKTS booth and steps

Gretchen Robinette / Gothamist

Should we be considering ways to experience the city in entirely new ways?  What would it mean to close Seventh Avenue from 47th to 57th streets to vehicular traffic, creating a pedestrian mall for the arts, anchored by Carnegie Hall to the north and the TKTS Broadway ticket booth to the South. This space could be lined with restaurants, sidewalk cafes, jazz clubs, art galleries and the like, serving as a central area for people to gather—not only those headed to performances in the theater district and concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, but city visitors staying in the many hotels close by. It’s an ideal location, given the convergence of subways from all five boroughs, for universal access, inviting broad-based participation by residents from across NYC in a newly revitalized artistic community.

How could all our music venues and the city’s extraordinary population of performing artists partner with the Chancellor for Education to ensure that every child in every New York City school has at least one meaningful music experience every day they are at school?

Can we build an extensive group of institutional partners to enable us to transform the scope and reach of Carnegie Hall’s free citywide concert series, which serve people in all five boroughs through every genre of music, to offer access to and engagement with music to massive numbers of New Yorkers where they live, as so many people do not have the opportunity to visit the great cultural institutions that are such a central part of the life of this great city?   

This is only a start of my dreams, but hopefully a stimulus for the beginning of a transformation that could lead to ensuring that music and the arts are for everyone.  It’s exciting to think of a world where every New Yorker can gather once again to enjoy a dazzling array of live music as part of their life, no matter what their background or where they may live.