Carnegie Hall Research Paper

1465 Words3 Pages

Emily A. Mathews
04/30/2015
Intro to Music History: Research Paper
Carnegie Hall is a prestigious music hall located in New York City, New York. More than 46,000 events have taken place here since it opened in 1891. The hall has been used for musical performances as well as lectures, readings, receptions, and it has provided rooms for secret organizations. A few big name flutists such as Jean Pierre Rampal, James Galway, and Emmanuel Pahud have performed and given masterclasses at the hall. Even some non-musicians have given speeches in the hall. Carnegie Hall was also a platform for people to let their voices be heard.
A man named Leopold Damrosch came to New York in 1871 to conduct a small musical society. He soon started his own oratorio …show more content…

On opening night horse drawn carriages were lined up for a quarter mile and the hall was jammed with New York’s high society figures such as: the Whitneys, Sloans, Rockerfellers, and Fricks. The hall was as pleasing to the eye as it was to the ear, and everyone knew that a special place had been built and would stand for a long time.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a well-known Russian composer, was selected to serve as the guest conductor for the series of concerts that would inaugurate the hall. The precedent set on opening night with the appearance of Tchaikovsky who conducted his Marche Solennelle and his Piano Concerto No. 1 attracted the world’s finest performers to its stage. The hall has drawn talent, glamour, and prestige to this very day, not only by musicians but also …show more content…

Some newspapers referred to the hall as “Carnegie’s Music Hall”, “Carnegie Music Hall”, and even “Carnegie Hall”. In 1893 the board of the hall persuaded Andrew Carnegie to allow the use of his name and change the name from “Music hall” to Carnegie Hall”.
On August 11, 1919 Andrew Carnegie passed away, and the majority of the Hall was passed to his widow, Louise. In 1925 she sold Carnegie Hall to a real estate developer by the name of Robert E. Simon. At the time of Simon’s untimely death in 1935, the hall was then passed to his son, Robert Simon Jr.
Carnegie Hall came close to being demolished when the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts was built. The New York Philharmonic was making plans to leave Carnegie Hall and move to the newly built Lincoln Center. The hall was due to be demolished on March 31, 1960 so that a 44 story office tower could be built. Life Magazine ran the story and a picture of the fire engine red monstrosity that developers were planning on

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