David Bowie’s Planned Carnegie Hall Tribute Will Now Be a Memorial Concert
A lot can change in a day.
The entertainment industry is as resilient as it is sentimental. A previously planned David Bowie tribute concert, already set in motion to take place at historic Carnegie Hall in NYC on March 31st, has now quickly been reframed as a memorial show in the wake of Bowie’s heartbreaking passing from cancer at the age of 69.
The news of his battle with cancer, and his death, came as a shock to all of his fans. It’s maybe safe to say that no one was taken more off guard by the death of Bowie than the editor for The New York Times who was unable to suck this lede back into his keyboard before it hit print:
Page C3 of today's NYT in print: “It's a good time to be David Bowie.” pic.twitter.com/XZviPXDgLH
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 11, 2016
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The idea for the initial tribute concert was orchestrated by City Winery director and CEO Michael Dorf and was going to consist of performances of Bowie’s hits by the Roots, Cyndi Lauper, the Mountain Goats, and a band led by Bowie’s longtime producer, Tony Visconti. The show has been in the planning stages for seven months and will go on, minus one very important guest of honor.
“Obviously we thought we were going to be paying tribute to a living legend, and now we’ll be paying tribute to a legend who passed,” Dorf said to Entertainment Weekly.
Proceeds from the show will be donated to a variety of music-centric organizations like Young Audiences New York, Little Kids Rock, Church Street School of Music, the Center for Arts Education, the American Symphony Orchestra and Grammy in the Schools. The full bill for the memorial show will be announced as soon as it’s solidified.