A companion to the major exhibition, Magical Designs for Mozart's Magic Flute, opening March 31, 2016, the corridor exhibition, Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival celebrates a festival that revolutionized New York City’s summertime music scene and renewed the world’s appreciation for one of Western music’s greatest creative minds. Through artwork, photographs, memorabilia, interviews, concert excerpts, and more, this display traces Mostly Mozart’s history, illuminating the path from its all-Mozart roots to its current ambitious, visionary place in the cultural landscape. Mozart Forever is located in the corridor near the Lincoln Center entrance to the Library for the Performing Arts.
Lincoln Center launched America’s first indoor summer music festival as “Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival” in August 1966. While portions of New York City’s new performing arts campus were still under construction, the four-week-long experiment filled a hole, not only in the schedule of the recently opened Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall), but also in the traditionally empty summertime cultural calendar. Everyone was encouraged to dress casually, and $3 tickets gave affordable access to the pleasure of Mozart—then an infrequently performed composer—presented in the novelty of air-conditioned comfort. The idea was a success from the start, and by 1970 the festival had transformed into Mostly Mozart.
The maverick spirit of the festival led to many innovations over the decades, from the creation of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra to the introduction of a wide array of composers related to Mozart. Now, it represents a strong commitment to contemporary music. The inauguration of the orchestral music director position with Gerald Schwarz’s appointment in 1982 ushered in a period of artistic growth that continues today under the inspired leadership of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée and Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss, who have brought late-night recitals, staged operas, dance, film, free performances, and a dramatic annual David Geffen Hall stage reconfiguration to the festival.
