Music & Concert Venues in New York
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
Metropolitan Opera House is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex.
As part of the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, this venue dedicated to ballet and opera first opened in 1966, replacing the original Metropolitan Opera House that opened in 1883 on Broadway, but was too small for advancing technology and stagecraft. It has a total of 4,000 seats, making it the largest purpose-built opera house in the world.
The World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, is located in Manhattan on Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets. It is a multi-purpose indoor arena, used for professional basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, and other sports and entertainment events. Opened in 1968, it is the oldest and most used major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area. The construction of the arena costed about $1.1 billion, meaning Madison Square Garden has been ranked as one of the ten most expensive stadium venues ever built.
Barclays Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Brooklyn, New York City. The center is home to the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, and is due to be home to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League. Aside from sporting events, the arena also hosts concerts and music events, and the center hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013. The venue has also won a number of awards, including the 2012 Pollstar Award for Best New Major Concert Venue, Architizer A+ Building of the Year Award, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Brooklyn Building Award for Economic Development, and the 2013 Sports Business Awards Sports Facility of the Year.
The NYCB (New York Community Bank) Theatre at Westbury hosts some top entertainment, including pop, country, rock, rhythm and blues music events and comedy shows. The theater was built in 1956, in a round style, with a seating capacity of 3,000, and is now owned by Live Nation.
The Irving Plaza building was originally a hotel, until 1927 when the building was completely renovated and turned into a ballroom-style theater. It was then named Irving Plaza and was used for a variety of music, dance and other events. In 1978, Irving Plaza was converted into a rock music venue and now hosts many well-known artists.