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IT'S TAKEN a long time, but Town Hall, the acoustically superior 43rdStreet landmark just off Times Square, is finally thrusting itselftoward the spotlight. Nearly 10 years after the nonprofit Town Hall Federation took over from New York University and raised $1.5 million to refurbish the run-down auditorium, the foundation is presenting an expansive season ranging from the up-to-the-minute music of Meredith Monk to Beethoven's piano trios, with a Eugene O'Neill centenary festival thrown in.
"I have the gut feeling that people will be excited about the real outburst, and we're going to fly," said Laura Kaminsky, a composer and programer who was hired last winter as artistic director of the hall.
"We are calling this our renaissance season," said foundation president Marvin Leffler, the retired Queens businessman who managed the hall's restoration but who, until this season, was reluctant to support any major performance programs. The foundation has put up $100,000 for artists' fees, is providing an additional $100,000 in hall costs and has waived some income from the rentals, which in past years has made up nearly 90 percent of the hall's budget.
"We are on sound enough footing that we certainly can take this gamble," Leffler said, "I think it will pay off."
The hall, which is already the home of the Philharmonia Virtuosi's six-concert series and an array of other outside activities, will present three classical series - "Midtown Masters," a nine-concert blend of the contemporary and the traditional; "Select Debuts," an already-established series of young artists, and the four-concert Beethoven trio series, with the Raphael Quartet.
In addition, there...