page_title: Newark, New Jersey
section_title: Performing arts
hierarchical_section_title: Newark, New Jersey / Arts and culture / Performing arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Newark Symphony Hall &amp; Boys Chorus School Broad Street This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 77000867
context_page_description: Newark is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County. As one of the nation's major air, shipping, and rail hubs, the city had a census-estimated population of 282,011 in 2019, making it the nation's 73rd-most populous municipality, after being ranked 63rd in the nation in 2000.
  Settled in 1666 by Puritans from New Haven Colony, Newark is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Its location at the mouth of the Passaic River has made the city's waterfront an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Today, Port Newark–Elizabeth is the primary container shipping terminal of the busiest seaport on the U.S. East Coast. Newark Liberty International Airport was the first municipal commercial airport in the United States, and today is one of its busiest.
  Several leading companies have their headquarters in Newark, including Prudential, PSEG, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Audible.com, IDT Corporation, and Manischewitz. A number of important higher education institutions are also in the city, including the Newark campus of Rutgers University; the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Seton Hall University's law school.
context_section_description: The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, near Military Park, opened in 1997, is the home of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey State Opera, The center's programs of national and international music, dance, and theater make it the nation's sixth-largest performing arts center, attracting over 400,000 visitors each year.
  Prior to the opening of the performing arts center, Newark Symphony Hall was home to the New Jersey Symphony, the New Jersey State Opera, and the Garden State Ballet, which still maintains an academy there. The 1925 neo-classic building, originally built by the Shriners, has three performance spaces, including the main concert named in honor of famous Newarker Sarah Vaughan, offering rhythm and blues, rap, hip-hop, and gospel music concerts, and is part of the modern-day Chitlin' Circuit.
  The Newark Boys Chorus, founded in 1966, performs regularly in the city. The African Globe Theater Works presents a new works seasonally. The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival took place in Newark for the first time in 2010.
  Venues at the universities in the city are also used to present professional and semi-professional theater, dance, and music. Since its opening in 2007, the Prudential Center has presented Diana Ross, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, The Eagles, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Spice Girls, Jonas Brothers, Metro Station, Metallica, Alicia Keys, Demi Lovato, David Archuleta, Taylor Swift and American Idol Live!, among others. The Rolling Stones broadcast their last show on their 50th anniversary tour live on pay-per-view from the arena on December 15, 2012. Bon Jovi performed a series of ten concerts to mark the venue's opening.
  In the house music and garage house genres and scene, Newark is known as an innovator. Newark's Club Zanzibar, along with other gay and straight clubs in the 1970s and 80s, was famous as both a gay and straight nightlife destination. Famed DJ Tony Humphries helped "spawn the sometimes raw but always soulful, gospel-infused subgenre" of house music known as the "Jersey sound. The club scene also gave rise to the ball culture scene in Newark hotels and nightclubs.
  House music producer, DJ and writer Junior Sanchez started making house music in his teens growing up in the Ironbound district.
  Brick City club, a dance-oriented electronic music genre, is native to the city.
caption: Newark Symphony Hall
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