NEW YORK (AP) – One plus one equals more than two.

That’s how the head of Carnegie Hall describes a new partnership announced Friday between his world-famous institution and City Center, a landmark hall just 150 feet away that has hosted everything from Leonard Bernstein’s conducting to flamenco and “Gilbert & Sullivan.”

While maintaining their separate artistic programs, the two organizations plan to create joint programs that tap Carnegie’s musical strengths and City Center’s dance, drama and musical theater performances.

“Our mission is to bring the best of the best to Carnegie Hall – and that can include rock ‘n’ roll,” Clive Gillinson, Carnegie’s executive and artistic director, told The Associated Press. “But we can also create some major festivals with City Center, providing fascinating artistic journeys for the public.”

Laying out the scenario for his equation – “one plus one equals more than two” – he said: “Imagine a thematic festival that can draw simultaneously on newly commissioned music, dance and theater works, with performances by symphony orchestras, dance companies, poets, theater companies, chamber ensembles and recitalists.”

City Center must first undergo a renovation to be completed in the fall of 2008, with construction starting in the summer of 2007, said Arlene Shuler, the center’s president and chief executive officer.

“I looked at how close we were to Carnegie Hall and I thought that there might be some sort of synergy,” Shuler told the AP.

She said a public passage that runs along City Center between West 55th and West 56th streets can serve as a pedestrian link, “so people can flow through to both sides.”

The first initiative of the partnership is a $150 million capital campaign to renovate the City Center facilities, using both public and private funds. The main stage will be a 2,200 seat state-of-the-art hall for dance and theater, with ample wing space for productions.

The center also will include expanded space for the educational programs of both City Center and Carnegie Hall, some beamed around the world via the Internet.

While programming plans are not set, Carnegie and City Center are forming a joint board chaired by Sanford I. Weill, also Carnegie’s board chairman, with City Center’s board chairman, Raymond A. Lamontagne, as vice chairman.

Gillinson will become president of the partnership organization while continuing to lead Carnegie Hall, with Shuler as executive vice president while still at the helm of City Center.