New York Philharmonic’s Music Director Vows to Restore Parks Series

“I am making a personal promise that these beloved free concerts will return next summer and continue for many years to come,” he wrote in a letter sent via e-mail to The New York Times on Wednesday, following the publication of a critic’s notebook lamenting the orchestra’s decision to suspend the series, which began in 1965.

According to Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president and chief executive, the popular annual parks tour was dropped this year to make way for other projects. These include a memorial concert at Avery Fisher Hall on Sept. 10 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. On that day, Mr. Gilbert is scheduled to conduct Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, which will be broadcast live on radio and rebroadcast on television the next night by PBS.