Discord over name of orchestra home

The noises emanating from the home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the Lincoln Centre are suddenly less than melodious. A squabble has broken out over the name of the auditorium, Avery Fisher Hall.

Management at the Lincoln Centre is embarking on a massive refurbishment of its various performance spaces that will include a total rebuilding of Avery Fisher Hall. In the process, however, it may decide to replace Avery Fisher with a new name.

Lying behind the move – as ever in the arts community in the United States – is a question of money. Redeveloping the Lincoln Centre, expected to cost $1bn (£685m), will mean raising money from private philanthropists or corporations. Whoever gives money for the new hall will inevitably ask that their name be attached to it.

The family of Avery Fisher, an electronics tycoon who died in 1994, is unimpressed and is seeking to block the Lincoln Centre from jettisoning his name. Its lawyers argue that when Mr Fisher gave the centre $10.5m in 1973 to rebuild a hall that was originally constructed in 1962, he did so believing his name would be attached to it "in perpetuity".

While talks are scheduled between the two sides this week, the Fisher family is threatening to go to court. "At that time, it was mutually agreed that the hall in which the Philharmonic performs would be named in perpetuity for him, not merely for 29 years," a family lawyer, William Zabel, protested.

"We will try to reach an amicable agreement," a spokeswoman for the Lincoln Centre said. "Nothing is settled."