Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Since 1963, The Starr Foundation has provided $88.3 million to New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and its resident arts organizations.
Lincoln Center is a vital and vibrant cultural and civic institution, comprised of distinguished resident arts organizations united on one campus. Its more than 20 performance venues accommodate a range of audiences, from intimate spaces of fewer than 100 seats to concert halls seating more than 3,700. Collectively, Lincoln Center attracts more than 6.5 million visitors annually.
The Starr Foundation’s capital contributions for Lincoln Center’s redevelopment initiatives have helped modernize its concert halls and public spaces, renew its 16-acre campus, and create welcoming public and community spaces. Lincoln Center’s first redevelopment project was the transformation of West 65th Street and the revitalization of Alice Tully Hall. The Starr Foundation contributed $10 million to the endeavor, plus $15 million for the renovation of the Chamber Music Society’s theater in Alice Tully Hall, the Starr Theater. The Hall is now a nexus point for the Lincoln Center campus, with a soaring three-story glass facade, enlarged lobby, redesigned exterior community space, and state-of-the-art performance space that benefits artists and audiences alike.
The Starr Foundation also has supported Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’s Summer for the City program—a summer festival featuring hundreds of free, diverse outdoor performances, including music, dance, food, and poetry, which brings international and local artists together to engage in the community.
In addition to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Starr Foundation also has directly funded the following Lincoln Center resident art organizations:
Based at Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic (NY Phil) is an internationally renowned 106-member symphony orchestra. Each year, America’s longest-existing orchestra reaches millions of people through its extensive programming, including concerts in David Geffen Hall and on tours around the U.S. and the world; free performances across New York City; and through television, radio, and online broadcasts. The NY Phil regularly hosts distinguished musicians from around the globe, as well as emerging talents. It also partners with schools and educational institutions to offer programs such as Philharmonic Schools, the Young People’s Concerts, and the Very Young Composers Program, which introduces classical music and composition to young audiences, cultivating the next generation of orchestral musicians and audiences.
The Starr Foundation has funded programs that make symphonic music more accessible, such as the NY Phil’s free Concerts in the Parks summer series. In 2022, the Foundation provided $2.5 million to accelerate the renovation of David Geffen Hall, enhancing the acoustics and reconfiguring the seating to provide a more intimate and engaging experience for both performers and audiences.
World premiere of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor, sponsored by The Starr Foundation
Founded in 1883, the Metropolitan Opera (Met Opera) has presented the U.S. and world premieres of some of history’s most important operas, including classic works by great composers such as Wagner, Puccini, and Humperdinck; significant modern-era productions; and other powerful performances. With television and radio broadcasts, simulcasts to movie theaters through its Live in HD series, and online streaming, the Met Opera routinely brings the opera experience to new audiences everywhere.
The Starr Foundation has contributed more than $7.7 million to the Met Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program (LYADP), which, since 1980, has trained a generation of opera singers, coaches, and pianists to perform at the highest standards. In 1997, a $5 million endowment from the Foundation established the C.V. Starr Fellows Fund, which provides stipends to young artists in the LYADP. Starr Foundation funding has also supported the company’s longtime, live, Saturday matinee radio broadcasts for the Met Opera. In addition, the Foundation has supported a weekly radio broadcast program and provided a $1.2 million grant to help underwrite The First Emperor, composed by Tan Dun with a libretto written by Tan Dun and Ha Jin, which had its world premiere at the Met in 2006 with Plácido Domingo in the title role.
Mr. Starr maintained a box at the Met and respected the opera as a true art form. When he personally underwrote a new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1958, he ensured that it depicted Japan authentically, under the direction of Mr. Yoshio Aoyama and with designer Mr. Motohiro Nagasaka, with sets, props, costumes, and accessories designed and made-to-order in Japan and shipped to New York. Mr. Starr considered the production “not only great opera and great theater, but a tribute to the Japanese people, their taste, and art.”
—Cornelius Vander Starr: 1892–1968, C.V. Starr & Co.1970, 16
Students of music, dance, acting, composition, choreography, and playwriting receive the highest caliber of instruction at the Juilliard School, which has led the world in performing arts education for over a century. Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, and continuing education from its New York City campus, as well as educational programming in China at the Tianjin Juilliard School.
In 1977, the Foundation established the C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund at Juilliard, helping to make outstanding performing arts education accessible to all gifted artists regardless of their financial means. Over the years that followed, the Foundation contributed $3.6 million to the Fund, enabling Juilliard to provide more than $6.5 million in scholarships and support nearly 700 students since its creation.
“It was my dream for many years to study at the Juilliard School, and your support and generosity have made this a reality for me. Thank you so much for supporting me along my journey as a young artist. Having this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study at Juilliard means the world to me and your generous scholarship has made it possible for me to attend.”
— Claire Arias-Kim (Bachelor of Music, Violin, 2024)
The Starr Foundation also supports Juilliard’s academic programs, including through the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellows Program, which is one of the nation’s most sought-after postgraduate music programs; the Starr Doctoral Stipend; and the Doctoral Forum Series. The C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellows program provides resident doctoral candidates with a full-tuition scholarship in their early years of study. The Starr Foundation provided $6 million in endowment support for this program, whose alumni include renowned professors, performers, and composers.
“To be accepted as a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow is one of the greatest honors of my life. I am tremendously grateful to be able to attend Juilliard for five more years, but to be able to do so tuition-free and with a stipend is almost unimaginable. The expenses of living in New York are, of course, astronomical, and this generous financial contribution alleviates a large portion of my financial stress. Without it, I simply would not be able to pursue this degree at this wonderful school.”
— Jacob Beranek (Doctor of Musical Arts, Composition, 2028)
George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1948 to reimagine classical dance, and it has been setting the standard for the art of ballet ever since. Among the most recognized dance companies in the world, NYCB is also committed to touring, community education, and sharing dance through the media, all to make the magic of ballet accessible to as wide an audience as possible. The Starr Foundation’s funding from 1986 to 2010 supported general operating and endowment campaigns as well as specific projects such as the ballet West Side Story Suite.
C2 students
As the official training academy of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), the School of American Ballet (SAB) is among the world’s most respected institutions for advancing the art of ballet. Students learn from renowned dancers and gain unique performance opportunities. Advanced students preparing to begin ballet careers receive unparalleled support for navigating the audition process and securing a placement at professional ballet companies nationally and internationally.
The Starr Foundation established the C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund at SAB in 1983, comprised of the Foundation’s gifts totaling $1.9 million. The Fund provides continuing support to ensure that talented young dancers of diverse backgrounds can access opportunities at SAB as they prepare for professional careers in ballet. The Fund has supported more than 750 students in the Girls C2 level—the penultimate level in the advanced division for young women from all over the country and around the world—with subsidies and scholarships that cover 60% or more of the costs for training and housing. Among the 48 female students SAB has placed at professional companies from 2018 to 2023, 47 progressed through the C2 level before receiving their contracts. By meaningfully subsidizing the cost of C2 training, the C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund is pivotal in assisting students across this stepping-stone level to a professional career.
A second endowment, established by a $200,000 grant in 1999, supports faculty salaries and benefits, ensuring the highest quality of training and instruction at SAB.
Andrea Martin and Robert Downey Jr. in McNEAL at the Lincoln Center Theater
Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) is the largest not-for-profit theater in the United States, with productions at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theater and two off-Broadway venues: the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and the Claire Tow Theater. Through tours, telecasts, recordings, and other media, LCT reaches audiences across the United States and around the world. The Starr Foundation provided general operating support for LCT’s programs, including the Directors Lab, a developmental symposium for new and emerging artists, and Open Stages, an arts-in-education program operated in cooperation with New York City public schools.
Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center
Since its opening in 1969, the Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center has brought audiences the finest performances in instrumental music. Today, its performances take place within the warm wood veneers of the Starr Theater in the historic Alice Tully Hall; it also reaches audiences through tours, media and live-streaming productions, and an extensive recorded music library. CMS preserves the legacy of chamber music through performances of classic compositions dating back to the Renaissance, and has commissioned more than 160 new works from composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Alberto Ginastera, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and many others. Starr Foundation funding for CMS has included support for education initiatives such as elementary and teen programs, and master classes for teachers.
Performance of the Shanghai Suite at Jazz at Lincoln Center, 2022.
Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) is not only the nation’s leading jazz orchestra and venue, but also an educational organization with particular emphasis on public schools in New York City. JALC promotes the appreciation and understanding of jazz—one of America’s important contributions to the performing arts worldwide—through performances, education, and advocacy. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs throughout the United States and in its home at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Manhattan, which hosts a world-class concert space, various smaller performance spaces, classrooms, and recording facilities. In New York City, numerous programs engage more than 300,000 students and adults each year through performances, classes, symposia, and professional development seminars.
Among other support, The Starr Foundation helped fund the U.S. premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s The Shanghai Suite, a “glorious and resplendent” musical meditation on ancient and modern Chinese culture set to the language of jazz. The Suite features songs such as “The Monkey King’s March” and “Li Bai’s Blues,” celebrating the cross-cultural collaboration that the jazz tradition has fostered. The performance also marked the first time Chinese guest artists performed traditional Chinese instruments on stage with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.