The Score | A Brighter Buffalo

In July, the Buffalo Philharmonic in upstate New York performed a spectacular free outdoor concert at a most unusual venue: the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. The event, dubbed “EnLIGHTen,” was held on the South Lawn of the newly renovated Richardson Olmsted Campus and was meant to “spotlight the historical function of the Richardson as a place of healing.” Music Director JoAnn Falletta conducted music by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, and Rachmaninoff, chosen, the orchestra noted, because the composers “lived with mental illness and created astounding music.” The concert was accompanied by a light show projected onto the iconic Richardson Towers, marking the successful completion of the first phase of redevelopment of the 145-year-old National Historic Landmark into a hotel and architecture center. The original Buffalo State Asylum was designed in the 1880s by Henry Hobson Richardson with the famed landscape team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.