UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Lincoln Center will offer a mix of free and choose-what-you-pay performances during its 2026-27 season, featuring contemporary dance, music, theater and festivals celebrating both global artists and the Upper West Side's history.
Announced Wednesday, the season continues Lincoln Center's effort to make its campus more accessible while bringing together artists and audiences across cultures and generations.
One of the season's biggest highlights is the return of the Legacies of San Juan Hill Festival, honoring the neighborhood that stood where Lincoln Center now sits.
The festival will feature a one-night-only concert presentation of "Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed," reuniting stars including Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Brandon Victor Dixon, Norm Lewis and Adrienne Warren.
The Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival also returns in January with its first winter edition, showcasing U.S.-based companies and world and New York premieres by choreographers including Hannah Garner, Omar Román De Jesús, Heidi Latsky, Shamel Pitts and Netta Yerushalmy.
Jazz at Lincoln Center founder Wynton Marsalis will be honored as Lincoln Center's Visionary Artist with performances spanning multiple musical traditions throughout the season.
Other highlights include expanded arts-and-technology programming through Lincoln Center Immersive, the debut of the Heartbeat Summit, which explores the connection between the arts and health, and the return of annual favorites such as American Songbook, Big Umbrella Festival for neurodiverse audiences and a range of family programming.
Lincoln Center President and CEO Mariko Silver said the season reflects the organization's longstanding commitment to making the arts accessible to all New Yorkers.
All Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts presentations will be offered free or through a choose-what-you-pay model. Tickets for fall events go on sale Sept. 9.
For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.
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