With outdoor concert, Lincoln Center starts path to return

NEW YORK » On a sun-splashed portion of Lincoln Center, with 120 health care workers listening in neatly arranged rows of folding chairs, members of the New York Philharmonic made an initial return to concerts Wednesday, 13 months after the novel coronavirus pandemic decimated their season.

A brass quintet and a horn quartet with flute Mindy Kaufman beamed as they played a 90-minute lunchtime concert in Hearst Plaza. The concert began a schedule that will include more than 100 open-air concerts and graduations.

“It’s so beautiful to have culture back in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told the crowd. “We live through our artists, our musicians. We live through the plays we go to, all the things that make New York City special.”