The Reviews Are In: The Opening Of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Is a Phenomenal Success
December 31, 2002
"A world-class arts center at last for a world-class city. Lincoln Center. Kennedy Center. And now, The Kimmel Center." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"The new home of The Philadelphia Orchestra is precise, luminous architecture for lovers of rich, cultivated sound. The building... puts Philadelphia on a new cultural footing for the 21st century." - The New York Times
"Philadelphia opens a concert hall that Paris can only dream about." - Le Monde
"Verizon Hall is wonderful. Wonderful! ...The Kimmel Center possesses enormous potential both as a setting for high art and as a source of urban vitality... The center is a civic gesture on a grand scale, and the ingredients are there for it to become a fresh, lively, precedent-shattering culture complex..." - The Washington Post
"Watch out, Broadway. Here comes Broad Street... the ambitious Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts... is the city's answer to Washington's Kennedy Center and New York's Lincoln Center - an anchor for the arts (and an architectural icon). - USA Today
"A major new performing arts center has risen in the seat of liberty, and both Philadelphia and America are better for it... 2001 will not end with only the story of destruction on the East Coast." - Los Angeles Times
"It's a Stradivarius." - Philadelphia Daily News
"The reviews have been phenomenal and inspiring," said Leslie Anne Miller, President of the non-profit Regional Performing Arts Center (RPAC) which owns and operates The Kimmel Center. "Our opening was everything we dreamed of and more. And this is only the beginning."
An estimated 40,000 people visited The Kimmel Center on its opening day December 16. The doors had to be closed early because of overflow crowds. During The Kimmel Center's Opening Celebration from December 16-31, lines formed almost daily outside the building before the doors opened in the morning. The box office did $1 million in sales its first week. Over 800 people a day went on guided tours, gaping as they wandered beneath The Kimmel Center's awesome 150-foot steel and glass vault ceiling. Thousands of people attended 130 free events and performances. Thousands more packed Verizon Hall for sold-out concerts by Peter Nero and the Philly Pops®, the Vienna Choir Boys, Canadian Brass, Michael Feinstein and Betty Buckley, and the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra.
"We've said all along we want to be known as a place that offers both the highbrow and the lowbrow," said RPAC Chairman Willard Rouse. "We have state-of-the-art concert halls that will bring in world-class acts. But we've also created an incredible public building where we hope all people will feel welcome. I think the overwhelming crowds these past two weeks are proof that they already do."
The Regional Performing Arts Center's commitment to community programming will continue in the new year. Every Wednesday beginning January 2, students and faculty from The University of the Arts will take the stage in Commonwealth Plaza at lunchtime and during happy hour. Plans are in the works to expand the free programming later in the season.
Upcoming events at The Kimmel Center include performances by Bill Cosby, PHILADANCO, Jerry Blavat, violinst Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, Three Mo' Tenors, soprano Renee Fleming, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Tickets can be purchased at the box office, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or by calling Ticket Philadelphia at 215-893-1999.
No tickets are required to enjoy The Kimmel Center's inviting public spaces and breathtaking views. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will be open to the public seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and later on evenings with performances. Admission to the building is free.
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