New York's freelance orchestras have long yearned for such a facility
The Orchestra of St. Luke's intends to buy half of a building in Clinton to create a permanent home for itself as well as rehearsal space for a dog's breakfast of local orchestras. If the plan is realized, it could represent a major boon for New York's classical music scene.
The orchestra is expected to announce on Monday that it will buy part of a six-story building on West 37th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, that also houses the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
“We want it to be this wonderful hub, almost a community center for the musicians," said Marianne Lockwood, the president and executive director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's. “Improving the quality of musical life is something that's really important to us."
Renovation, to be completed by 2010, would involve replacing two small Off Broadway theaters. The Baryshnikov Arts Center is buying a third theater in the building, at which the Wooster Group plans to be in residence.
The new facility is to be called the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, after Joseph DiMenna, an orchestra trustee who with his wife, Diana, gave the lead gift of $5 million to create the center.
The orchestra will have offices in the building and room for its educational activities. The project calls for a 4,020-square-foot rehearsal room, big enough for an orchestra of 100 and chorus of 150; a room a quarter of that size, appropriate for a chamber orchestra; four smaller rooms for sectional rehearsals; three individual practice rooms; a lounge and a cafe; a sheet music library; and locker rooms.
Ms. Lockwood said St. Luke's planned to coordinate the rehearsal schedules of other New York groups to make sure they would have access. The groups she said were interested included the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Pops, the New York Youth Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society. That task of coordination would not be as difficult as it might seem because the organizations use many of the same freelancers.
