Carnegie Hall
Overview
Named after Andrew Carnegie who paid for the building, Carnegie Hall is one of the City’s oldest—and perhaps the world’s most famous—performance spaces. William Burnet Tuthill designed Carnegie Hall in a revivalist brick and brownstone Italian Renaissance style. It’s one of the last large buildings in New York built without a steel frame, and rendered in narrow “Roman” bricks of a mellow ochre hue with details in terracotta and brownstone. Construction began in 1890 and the official opening night was May 5, 1891, with a concert conducted by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Carnegie’s widow sold the building to a real estate developer in 1925 and by 1960, with the New York Philharmonic on the move to the Lincoln Center, there were plans to demolish the edifice and replace it with a commercial building. Under pressure from a group led by violinist Isaac Stern, the city of New York bought the site in 1960 for $5 million and leased it to a nonprofit corporation. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
Isaac Stern Auditorium, the 2,804-seat main hall, hosts many of the world’s premier soloists and ensembles, as well as visiting orchestras from around the world. The legendary and beautiful hall has brilliant acoustics and high seating. In fact, visitors to the top balcony must climb 105 steps; it cannot be reached by elevator. Carnegie Hall also contains the intimate 268-seat Weill Recital Hall, usually used to showcase chamber music and vocal and instrumental recitals, as well as the ornate, underground 600-seat Zankel Concert Hall.—Ginger Adams Otis
See It
• Rose Museum: As part of Carnegie Hall’s 100th anniversary celebration, a museum was created on the first tier level of Carnegie Hall. It houses special temporary exhibitions as well as pieces from the permanent collection drawn from the Carnegie Hall Archives.
• Rohatyn Room: This opulent dining hall (a glimpse of just how luxurious life was for the well-heeled elite of New York City before the Great Depression) is only opened occasionally for pre-concert and intermission bar service. It is also available for private events at steep prices.
• In-season only (not during the summer months). Tours are offered Mon-Fri at 11:30am, 2pm, and 3pm and depart from the main lobby. Tickets can be purchased at the box office from 11am–3pm on tour days. Call 212-903-9765 for more information.
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