Lincoln Center has appointed Bill Bragin to the new position of Director of Public Programming, beginning next January. He will be responsible for curating all of the complex's free outdoor presentations, most notably the popular summer programs Midsumer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, as well as other selected projects including special events to celebrate Lincoln Center's 50th anniversary in 2009-10.

Bragin is currently director of Joe's Pub, the cabaret/performance space at the Public Theater in Manhattan. He has presented more than 3,000 events there since 2001, and in 2005 Time Out New York pronounced him "New York's Finest Music Booker." He created the Joe's Pub in the Park series at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and co-founded globalFEST, an annual world music festival jointly presented by the Public Theater, the World Music Institute and World Music/Crash Arts.

In addition, Bragin programmed five seasons (three of them as artistic director) of the Central Park SummerStage series, where he introduced a program to commission dance and live music. For two seasons he was music curator at Symphony Space on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

In announcing Bragin's appointment, Lincoln Center vice president for programming Jane Moss said in a statement, "We wish to unify the curatorial vision for our outdoor programming festivals — Midsummer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out of Doors — especially in light of the current transformation of Lincoln Center's public spaces. Bill's encyclopedic knowledge of the international music scene will ensure that the hundreds of thousands of people who come to Lincoln Center each summer will have outstanding, diverse artistic experiences in a new, welcoming outdoor environment."

By Matthew Westphal