The Lincoln Center Festival in New York may be young, but it's quickly becoming one of most important and influential performing-arts festivals in the world.

Held in and around the prestigious Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the multimedia festival, which is in its fifth year and runs July 11 through July 30, features a highly varied program of 29 productions and 17 premieres, presented by an international roster of acclaimed artists.

Musical highlights of the Lincoln Center Festival include the U.S. premiere of Writing to Vermeer, an opera by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and noted British film director Peter Greenaway; a concert series celebrating the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen; a retrospective of the work of American composer/vocalist Meredith Monk; and a five-part series devoted to electronic music.

Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival, says that one reason for the event's success is its ability to illuminate the subtle relationships between stylistically diverse artistic genres. "My personal excitement involves our pursuing of connections," he said recently. "This festival truly has become a metaphor of our time — a portrait of our place in history. We tried to involve things that are radically different, while still maintaining a thread displaying the humanity throughout."

The dichotomy weaves itself in such works as Writing to Vermeer, which gives us a historical perspective; the Messiaen celebration, which shows how Messiaen created metaphors with nature to conjure up what it means to be human; and the Monk tribute, which allows audiences to see how she has used the same tools as Messiaen, in a much less elaborate but beautiful way."

Celebrating Messiaen

The series of concerts devoted to the music of Messiaen, celebrates one of the 20th century's most original and imaginative musical minds.

Messiaen's final composition, Èclairs sur l'Au-Dela … (Illuminations of the Beyond ...) receives a performance by the New York Philharmonic and conductor Hans Vonk on Tuesday. A large-scale work that employs an orchestra of 128 musicians, Èclairs was commissioned for the Philharmonic's 150th anniversary season in 1992.

The composer's monumental Des canyons aux ètoiles... ("From the Canyons to the Stars ...") can be heard in a rare performance July 18, with conductor Reinbert de Leeuw leading renowned pianist Peter Serkin and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Inspired by the majesty of Utah's Bryce Canyon, the 98-minute-long work — the longest piece ever written for piano and chamber ensemble — is awash in vivid orchestral colors and includes numerous bird calls, a trademark feature in Messiaen's music.

The series concludes July 21 with Messiaen's Turangalîla-symphonie, (archived RealAudio excerpt) a 10-movement, Hindu-inspired work scored for solo piano, orchestra and Ondes Martenot. The work will be performed by the New York Philharmonic under Vonk's baton and will feature Andreas Haefliger on piano and Valérie Hartmann-Claverie on Ondes Martenot.

"Wherever and whenever I have conducted Messiaen's massive Turangalîla-symphonie," Maestro Vonk said, "it has always been an incredible success with the audience. I believe that this is because his music, while very complex, is also very immediate in its appeal."

Meredith Monk In Retrospect

Continuing its tradition of honoring a different American composer each year (past honorees include Leonard Bernstein, Ornette Coleman, and Steve Reich), Lincoln Center Festival 2000 presents a three-concert retrospective of the work of avant-garde performer Monk, focusing on her unique use of the human voice in her music. The concerts will feature rare performances of Monk's early works from the 1970s, along with newer music from the 1980s and '90s.

"Solo Landscapes" on July 18 features Monk in solo performance and with accompaniment by pianist Nurit Tilles. "Expeditions in Concert" on July 21 spotlights the artist's ensemble work, with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble performing selections from Monk's 1991 opera, ATLAS. "Monk Perspectives," the final evening of the series on July 23, intersperses music and short film with a diverse lineup of both solo and ensemble performances, closing with a presentation of the composer's award-winning Dolmen Music.

Electronics On The Edge

For fans of electronic music, Lincoln Center offers Electronic Evolution, a five-part concert series July 12 through July 19 that juxtaposes influential electronic classics with today's most cutting-edge technological developments.

Highlights of the series include the first all-electronic performance of Terry Riley's seminal minimalist masterpiece In C, featuring an all-star cast of early innovators such as Robert Moog and Pauline Oliveros with contemporary electronic artists. Also on tap is a celebration of the theremin, with two world-premiere performances of recent works composed for the one-of-a-kind instrument.

The series also features a concert devoted to 20th-century multichannel tape music, with works by Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and others, and a program exploring the turntable as an ensemble instrument, with three live turntable performances of John Cage's Imaginary Landscapes No. 5 as well as a world premiere by Raz Mesinai and a festival commission by the X-ecutioners.

Check in with sonicnet.com for ongoing festival coverage, including news, reviews and artist interviews. For additional calendar information or to purchase tickets, go to www.lincolncenter.org.