There will be music in the air on Saturday at the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center.

Forty student and alumni musicians and dancers from the Juilliard School, along with guest artists, will perform a piece from composer John Luther Adams.

“Crossing Open Ground” will be performed Saturday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. across Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus.


What You Need To Know

  • "Crossing Open Ground" is a musical performance Saturday at Lincoln Center from composer John Luther Adams

  • It is a collaboration between Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School

  • A Soundwalk has also been created from composer Ellen Reid which can be done using a free phone app connecting with GPS to play music designed for a specific location

“This wonderful piece, ‘Crossing Open Ground,’ is a great opportunity to bring the music, which is so typically behind closed doors here at Lincoln Center and put it out in the open,” Henry Timms, president and CEO at Lincoln Center, said. 

The performances are a collaboration between Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School, which is located on the performing arts campus on the Upper West Side. 

“This is a sonic and dance experience that people are going to wander into, the houses here are going to empty from the matinee and they are going to walk into this incredible experience of music,” said Damian Woetzel, president at Juilliard and a former principal of the New York City Ballet. 

The performances will be an opportunity for students to show off what they have learned, and folks passing by to hear some music during their day. 

“The John Luther Adams project specifically is really an awesome opportunity for Juilliard students to commune with the City of New York and with people in New York who are maybe just walking by Lincoln Center, are [a] kind of attracted to the sound and can really experience some first rate art by some incredible artists,” Nadia Sirota, creative associate at large at Juilliard and a former student, said.

Juilliard has also commissioned a Soundwalk of Lincoln Center and Central Park from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid.

A free phone app connects with GPS to play music designed for a specific location.

Reid created an earlier Central Park Soundwalk during the pandemic, and has since made 17 others around the world.  

“Soundwalk is meant for the listener to be able to compose their own experience,” said Reid, who plans on releasing an album at the end of August with music from her Soundwalks around the world.