Entertainment Venues In New York City, Across Country Finding Ways To Safely Reopen For Live Performances
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Entertainment venues across the country are finding ways to safely reopen after COVID-19 silenced most performances the past year.
Now, music is being heard again, including in New York City.
On a spring day full of new beginnings, you could hear the first sounds played for a ticketed audience at Lincoln Center since March of last year.
"We've really, really missed playing for people," New York Philharmonic musician Leelanee Sterrett told CBS News' Nancy Chen.
The concert was part of a new outdoor performing arts series called "Restart Stages" with 10 spaces for music, ballet, film and dance.
Their first audience was made up of 150 health care workers, including emergency medicine doctor Junnie Mark Kobashi.
"Unbelievable experience. It's been a whole year of lockdown, and it's just not the same listening to it through your computer or through headphones," Kobashi said.
Venues nationwide are finding new ways to safely welcome back audiences, including Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl, which plans to reopen with limited capacity concerts in May.
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"The arts community is hurting so badly. We closed first, will open last across this country," Lincoln Center President Henry Timms said. "One of the things we all need to see next is as much support as possible for local arts organizations ... for all those people who make up that big part of our soul we all need to reclaim."
For Sterrett, the concert was a reminder of the importance in coming together.
"Music is something that gives us an opportunity to do that regularly, and I hope everybody remembers how magical it is to gather together in the same space and experience something beautiful," she said.
A note of a community in concert.
CBS News' Nancy Chen contributed to this report.
