Autumn’s Coming, and with It Another Social Season Beckons

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The New York Sun

As autumn blows in, so do the party invitations.


One could do worse than clinking cocktail glasses at Lincoln Center.


The Film Society pops the corks for the New York Film Festival on October 1. The opening night gala starts with a screening of “Look at Me,” a French drama about a group of insecure Parisians. Could there be better fodder for a New York cocktail party? On October 7, Pedro Almodovar is the guest of honor at a party thrown by the society’s Young Friends of Film.


The party with one of the best views in town takes place October 20 at the new Jazz at Lincoln Center. The unstop pable Wynton Marsalis welcomes patrons and friends to the group’s first permanent home.


The board members of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts take a break from redevelopment meetings to honor Daisy Soros on October 13. The event at Avery Fisher Hall features a recital by virtuoso pianist Mikhail Pletnev. Lincoln Center’s new Young Patrons Society debuts at a cocktail party October 27.


Children can get in on the action at New York City Opera’s Family Ball on November 20.After a performance of “Cinderella,” budding opera lovers can meet her and the prince, sit in her coach, and try on a glass slipper.


Looking for legends? One might catch a glimpse of Brooke Astor at the New York Public Library on November 1. James Conlon, Renee Fleming, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and David Remnick will be honored as Library Lions. Oscar and Annette Oscar de la Renta are among the event’s chairmen.


Kitty Carlisle Hart will be out on the town November 21, when she and her late husband, Moss Hart, are honored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild. A concert will feature film clips from Hart’s plays (“You Can’t Take It with You,” “The Man Who Came to Dinner”). Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills co-host.


Many organizations work to keep New Yorkers healthy. The United Hospital Fund hosts its benefit October 4, The American Lung Association holds its 102nd anniversary gala November 3, with the cuddly Al Roker as emcee. Mayor Bloomberg is among the honorees. The Friends of the Harlem Hospital Center gather November 20.


If dressing up on Halloween excites you, then don’t miss the Central Park Conservancy’s Halloween Ball on October 27, held in a tent in the middle of the park. Extraordinary costumes are required. Guests tend to go more glam than ghoul.


Protecting New York’s great outdoors is the focus of a dinner on November 8, when Environmental Advocates of New York honors the executive director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Marianna Koval.


Speaking of Brookyn: A newcomer to the fund-raising scene is the Brooklyn Historical Society. Riding high from its first year of events and exhibits in a beautifully restored landmark building, the society holds its first gala, “Brooklyn Parties,” on October 16.


Also in Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Public Library Foundation’s gala November 18 raises money for the new plaza outside the library. On November 30, the Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrates the opening of the annual Next Wave Festival. The gala features a world premiere by Bang on the Can.


In Queens, the New York Hall of Science celebrates the completion of a 55,000-square-foot addition with a gala on November 10. Morley Safer will be on hand to honor the chairman and


chief executive of the New York Mets, Fred Wilpon; the president of the Bank of New York, Gerald Hassell, and a professor at New York University, Red Burns.


Art collectors will be busy the week of November 8,when the first round of parties take place in MoMA’s new digs (the public gets invited in November 20).


Flying low on the radar is the 50th anniversary gala of the Archives of American Art, part of the Smithsonian. It honors Eli Broad on October 20.


Too busy with soirees to shop for the holidays? The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House solves this dilemma with a three-day bazaar. A party preview gives guests first dibs on November 17.


After a brief calm around Thanksgiving, December brings one last hurrah of high-spirited bashes before people collapse over their Christmas pudding.


If you like to dance, don’t miss Alvin Ailey’s gala on December 1, which opens its season at City Center. The company will perform a new work with music by Stevie Wonder. Then everyone gets stomping in the ballroom of the Sheraton New York, transformed by designer David Stark of Avi Adler. The talk of the party will be the company’s new building opening in March.


Ah yes, the beginning of the spring social season.


The New York Sun

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