The Bronx’s newest independent live music venue and community center, Bronx Music Hall, recently celebrated its grand opening as the first venue of its kind in the Bronx in over 50 years.
Located at 438 East 163rd Street in Melrose is the Bronx Music Hall, a newly constructed $15.4 million facility that celebrates the history and future of the Bronx’s vibrant music scene.
The space boasts a total of 14,000 square feet for its music hall and community cultural center made in development with the nonprofit Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, or WHEDco for short. Bronx Music Hall aims to not only provide a space for local musicians to perform but to also allow creatives of all kinds to gather, create, and celebrate their works.
Constructed as a part of WHEDco’s Bronx Commons mixed-use development, the Bronx Music Hall features a 250-person capacity performance theater, a grand lobby and exhibition hall, a multipurpose room and dance studio, a green room, a recording studio and post-production room, and two adjacent plazas with amphitheater-style seating for outdoor performances.
Designed to serve an estimated 20,000 visitors annually, the center will offer live music, dance, and spoken word performances, classes in music and dance, theater workshops and productions, a youth orchestra, film screenings, art exhibitions, community showcases, and more.
“The opening of the Bronx Music Hall marks a new chapter in the cultural and economic renaissance of the South Bronx. This project embodies our commitment to supporting vibrant, inclusive communities through strategic investments in the arts and creative industries. This new venue will not only celebrate the borough’s incredible musical legacy but also serve as a catalyst for job creation, tourism, and long-term economic growth.”
– Hope Knight, Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner
Beyond displaying the skills of the Bronx, the BMH plans to foster the next generation of creatives within the borough through educational and cultural partnerships to inspire community engagement and the pursuing of careers in the arts.
In addition to the facility’s new endeavors, it now provides WHEDco’s Bronx Music Heritage Center a bigger and better space to call home. Founded in 2010, the BMHC preserves and promotes the rich musical history of the Bronx while cultivating and reviving the borough’s music scene today.
“Over decades the Bronx produced more popular music than any place in our country for the simple reason that different cultural traditions lived alongside one another… The Bronx Music Hall will spotlight the sounds of new Americans from around the globe, as well as Bronx born artists like Prince Royce, Romeo Santos, Jennifer Lopez, Cardi B, French Montana, and Samara Joy.”
– Nancy Biberman, Founder of WHEDco and President Emerita
BMHC highlights the evolution of the Bronx as a people and how periods of successive migration introduced distinctive sounds to one another, evolving into entirely new genres such as hip-hop, which saw its inception in the 1970s within the borough’s communities.
With their new space and resources at hand, the BMHC will continue the Bronx’s history of creative innovation with free cultural programs and free or low-cost music and dance classes for folks of all ages.
This giant step forwards in the Bronx creative community was made possible by a series of grants awarded to the WHEDco from the New York City Regional Economic Development Council, I LOVE NY’s Market New York program, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
To learn more about what the Bronx Music Hall has to offer, how to visit, and events to attend, be sure to check out their official website here.
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