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Read the press release here.

Philharmonic Remembers 9/11 With Free Concert

By Amy Zimmer | June 28, 2011 9:16am
Though the New York Philharmonic  will not perform free concerts in city parks this July it will be performing a free show at Avery Fisher Hall to honor the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Though the New York Philharmonic will not perform free concerts in city parks this July it will be performing a free show at Avery Fisher Hall to honor the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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Chris Lee

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo.com

MANHATTAN — The New York Philharmonic will offer a free concert on Sept. 10 in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the world-renowned Lincoln Center orchestra announced on Monday.

"A Concert for New York — In Remembrance and Renewal," will include performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection," at Avery Fisher Hall, with free tickets for those who want to watch indoors.

It will also be broadcast live on the radio and projected on a screen in Lincoln Center's plaza, according to the New York Times.

And the concert will be re-broadcast on Sept. 11 on PBS.

The Philharmonic's president and chief executive, Zarin Mehta, told the Times that the commemoration of the terror attacks "was the most important gesture."

Orchestra officials told the Times that the effort and permission required to organize the concert as well as the performance with tenor Andrea Bocelli in Central Park on Sept. 15, were factors in the Philharmonic's controversial decision to cancel its popular concerts in the parks series, which have taken place in mid-July for three decades.

Mehta said the Philharmonic initially envisioned a 9/11 memorial concert on Central Park's Great Lawn along with park concerts in other boroughs the same week.

Since orchestra players were scheduled to be on vacation that week, the Philharmonic moved their vacation to the week of July 11 — when the park concerts normally take place. But then the Parks Department and Central Park Conservancy told the Philharmonic that the Bocelli concert and the 9/11 event would damage the lawn too much, so Mehta moved the concert to Lincoln Center, the Times said.

Without the Central Park performance, the Philharmonic opted out of the concert park series in Manhattan and the rest of the city.

"Without Central Park, I can't afford to do the other boroughs," Mehta told the Times.

The orchestra said it would be back in the parks next year.

"This is something we tried to do rather special for New York and all over the world," Mehta said of the special performance, "and in the end we're being criticized for not doing parks concerts."

The NY Philharmonic said on its website that it would announce at a later date information on how to get tickets to the 9/11 concert.