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The first public events at the new $500 million Perelman Performing Arts Center<\/a>, the opulent new theater near the site of the World Trade Center, are deliberately laden with symbolism. The center is opening its doors with five shows on Sept. 19-23, collectively titled \u201cRefuge: A Concert Series to Welcome the World<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Each concert offers a different kind of refuge as its theme: Home, Faith, School, Family and Memory. Home (Sept. 19) presents musicians who gravitated from around the world to New York City; Family (Sept. 22) has sibling and multigenerational groups. School (Sept. 21) features musicians who have made education an integral part of their work.<\/p>\n The series affirms the city\u2019s diversity with an international lineup that includes Grammy-winning stars \u2014 Ang\u00e9lique Kidjo on Sept. 19, Common on Sept. 21, Jos\u00e9 Feliciano on Sept. 23 \u2014 along with lesser-known musicians dedicated to preserving and extending deep-rooted traditions. The program for Devotion: Faith As Refuge, on Sept. 20, includes klezmer music from the Klezmatics<\/a>, electronic transformations of Afro-Cuban Yoruba incantations<\/a> by \u00ccf\u00e9 and Moroccan Sufi trance music from Innov Gnawa<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two decades after the Sept. 11 attack, the center\u2019s artistic director, Bill Rauch, describes the Perelman\u2019s mission as \u201ccivic healing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe want to say that everyone is welcome,\u201d Mr. Rauch said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of trauma and resilience on our part of the island that we want to honor. You know, there were 93 countries represented in the people who lost their lives on 9\/11. And so it\u2019s important that we welcome as many different artists and audiences into our building as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The Perelman joins a New York City arts landscape full of big-budget performing-arts institutions, from Lincoln Center to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to the Shed. Is the scene too crowded? \u201cWhen every man, woman and child who lives in the five boroughs of New York City has a life that is saturated in performing arts, then we can begin to talk about whether there\u2019s too much,\u201d Mr. Rauch said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although the new arts center is a monumental marble cube with elaborate technological underpinnings \u2014 theaters that can be configured more than five dozen ways, sitting on foot-thick rubber supports to insulate them from subway noise \u2014 the tickets for the inaugural shows were priced pay-what-you-will from $15-120. Most of the concerts are sold out, but some will also feature free after-parties in the Perelman\u2019s public lobby. Forr\u00f3 in the Dark, which plays upbeat music from Northeastern Brazil, follows the Sept. 19 show. The center plans frequent free lobby performances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Arturo O\u2019Farrill, the pianist who leads the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra<\/a>, is performing on Sept. 20 in the \u201cSchool as Refuge\u201d concert. He founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, which provides instruments and music lessons to public-school students in New York City. When the center was being built, Mr. O\u2019Farrill was part of an advisory committee of artists; he urged the center to pay close attention to acoustics. \u201cI found it incredibly welcoming to artists\u2019 voices,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Farrill said. \u201cThat\u2019s not always the case with institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cBill\u2019s a very forward-looking person. This programing is about community. He\u2019s a very thoughtful man, and he\u2019s looking to expand the conversation on what performing arts is, what elitism does to the arts. He\u2019s not interested in perpetuating elitism.\u201d<\/p>\n