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COWBOY DIPLOMACY Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic are at the center of Carnegie Hall’s expansive outreach program.

Photograph: Mike Owen

New York shining the spotlight on another city: one almost does a double take at this unexpected humility. Yet that’s indeed what’s happening with Carnegie Hall’s 17-day festival, “Berlin in Lights,” which pays tribute to the burgeoning cultural life of the reborn German capital. Then again, a certain flexing of Gotham’s own cultural muscles comes through in the vast scale of the series: Collaborating with Carnegie are the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and seven other presenters, plus WNYC Radio and WNET/Channel 13. There will be 70 events in all, including concerts of classical, jazz and dance music, film screenings and lectures, and, of course, cabaret.

The festival, which opens on Fri 2, was built around an eight-day residency by the Berlin Philharmonic, deemed “Berlin’s greatest cultural ambassador” by Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director. “I thought, Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could expand beyond our well-known territory, and have not just music but something across New York’s entire cultural campus?” Gillinson explains.

According to Berlin Philharmonic music director Simon Rattle, the orchestra has been transforming almost as rapidly as the city itself. “Berlin has always been a city of cowboys, and the Philharmonic was founded by a group of people who didn’t want to be ruled,” he says. “After having been seen as a very elitist organization in the past, it’s interesting how passionately the players have embraced the idea of being part of the community. Education and outreach work is very much at the center of everybody’s thoughts.”

Rattle made education a priority when he assumed his post five years ago. The orchestra’s most successful effort to date has been “The Rite of Spring Project,” an acclaimed music-and-dance program that choreographer Royston Maldoom has been replicating here since the early fall. In the festival’s culminating event, 120 public-school students ranging in age from 7 to 17 will dance with the orchestra at the United Palace Theater (November 17 and 18).

“The feeling that the city and orchestra are melded together is very important,” Rattle says. “We need to be a living, breathing part of the city, and no longer a diva.” He’s referring to Berlin, but the same approach has been applied to the orchestra’s residency here. In addition to giving three Carnegie concerts focusing on late Mahler (November 13, 14 and 16), Philharmonic musicians will break off into small ensembles for free neighborhood concerts. Members of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela will do likewise; in all, 11 events will be scattered throughout the five boroughs, in venues such as the Salvation Army in Chinatown and Wave Hill in the Bronx.

Outreach across artistic genres and styles is another goal. Through the U.S. debut of electronica act Nomad Sound System at Zankel Hall on Mon 5, the festival touches on Berlin’s multicultural population (the group’s members hail from Tunisia, Algeria, Japan and Berlin).

“The lineup speaks for Berlin, as I cannot imagine another place in Germany having people like us working together,” Nomad’s DJ, Shazam, states via e-mail. “But what is musically possible today is not the standard on the Berlin streets. Only some areas are really multiethnic and easygoing. But these neighborhoods, like Kreuzberg, are big enough to make believe that it could be the city’s future.”

Diverse populations brought together by the arts, and a city’s wounds healed through culture: those are ideals that plenty of New Yorkers probably share. “In every other capital, there’s business and industry; in Berlin, it has been totally about culture regenerating the city,” Gillinson says. “One of the biggest lessons is just how important the arts are—not that New Yorkers don’t think so as well.”

For his part, Rattle sees culture valued more highly in Berlin than in the U.S. or even in his native Great Britain. “Politicians come to concerts and aren’t ashamed,” he says. “[German Chancellor] Angela Merkel is a reasonably regular concertgoer. She pays for her own tickets and comes without any great fuss.” Politicians at classical concerts? On that one, Berlin, you’ve got us beat.

“Berlin in Lights” opens Fri 2 at venues throughout the city. See carnegiehall.org/berlininlights for complete listings.