Carnegie Hall facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids
Carnegie Hall
Construction
Carnegie Hall in June 2019
Address	881 Seventh Avenue (at 57th Street) New York City United States
Public transit	Subway: 57th Street–Seventh Avenue
Owner	City of New York
Operator	Carnegie Hall Corporation
Type	Concert hall
Capacity	Stern Auditorium: 2,804 Zankel Hall: 599 Weill Recital Hall: 268
Opened	April 1891; 134 years ago (1891-04)
Architect	William Tuthill
Builder	Andrew Carnegie


Carnegie Hall
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Architectural style	Renaissance Revival
NRHP reference No.	66000535
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	December 29, 1962

Carnegie Hall is a famous concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is located at 881 Seventh Avenue. The building sits between 56th and 57th Street. It was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill. A rich businessman named Andrew Carnegie built it.

Carnegie Hall is known as one of the best places in the world for music. It hosts both classical and popular music concerts. The hall has its own teams for planning shows and marketing. It puts on about 250 performances every year. Other music groups can also rent the hall for their own shows.

Carnegie Hall has 3,671 seats in total. These seats are spread across three different performance spaces. The biggest one is the Stern Auditorium, which has 2,804 seats. There is also the 599-seat Zankel Hall and the 268-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall. The building also has offices on its top floors.

Carnegie Hall was built between 1889 and 1891. It was first called the Music Hall. It was meant for the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society. The Carnegie family owned the hall until 1925. Later, it was almost torn down in the 1950s. This was because the New York Philharmonic orchestra moved to Lincoln Center in 1962. Luckily, Carnegie Hall was saved. It is now a National Historic Landmark. This means it is protected because of its history.

Exploring the Location of Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is on the east side of Seventh Avenue. It is located between 56th Street and 57th Street. This area is in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is just two blocks south of Central Park. The land it sits on is about 27,618 square feet.

The building shares its city block with other famous places. These include the Carnegie Hall Tower and the Russian Tea Room. There is also an entrance to the New York City Subway right outside. This makes it easy for people to get to the hall.

Carnegie Hall helped create an art center in this part of New York. Many buildings for artists and musicians were built nearby. These include places like the Osborne and the Rodin Studios.

The Design and Performance Spaces

Original building at night

Carnegie Hall was designed by William Tuthill. He was an amateur musician himself. Other architects, Richard Morris Hunt and Adler & Sullivan, also helped. Dankmar Adler was an expert in sound. He made sure the hall sounded great.

The building was made with strong, heavy walls. It was designed in an Italian Renaissance style. This means it looks like buildings from the Renaissance period in Italy.

Carnegie Hall is made of three connected parts. Each part holds one of the hall's performance spaces. The main building has the Isaac Stern Auditorium. The eastern part has the Weill Recital Hall. The southern part has Zankel Hall.

What the Outside Looks Like

The outside of Carnegie Hall is made of reddish-brown brick. It has many fancy details from the Renaissance style. These details are made of terracotta. The main entrance on 57th Street has five large arches. Above the entrance, you can read "Music Hall Founded by Andrew Carnegie."

The Seventh Avenue side of the building looks similar. It also has arches and decorative details. The building was later extended to include more offices and studios.

Inside the Performance Halls

The Main Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage

Isaac Stern Auditorium

The Stern Auditorium is the largest hall. It has 2,804 seats on five levels. It was named after violinist Isaac Stern in 1997. He helped save the hall from being torn down. This hall used to be the home of the New York Philharmonic orchestra.

The entrance to this hall is on 57th Street. The lobby is very grand with high ceilings. It used to have an organ loft. Now, it has a lounge area. The lobby was changed in the 1980s to be at street level. It has beautiful designs and lighting.

The hall has many levels of seating. The lowest level is the parquet, with 1,021 seats. Above that are two tiers of private boxes. The Dress Circle and the Balcony are the highest levels. The stage is 42 feet deep. It was designed to be raised and lowered.

Zankel Hall

Zankel Hall is on the Seventh Avenue side. It is named after Judy and Arthur Zankel. They helped pay for its renovation. This hall was the first part of Carnegie Hall to open in 1891. It was originally called Recital Hall. It could hold over 1,000 people. It was even used for banquets.

Zankel Hall was completely rebuilt and opened in 2003. It has its own entrance from Seventh Avenue. Escalators take you to the seating levels. This hall is very flexible. Its floor can be divided into sections that move up and down. This allows for different stage setups.

Zankel Hall has 599 seats on two levels. It is also wheelchair-accessible. Building this hall was a big challenge. Workers had to dig deep underground. They had to be careful not to disturb the main hall or the nearby subway. Special soundproofing was added to keep out noise.

Weill Recital Hall

The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall is named after Sanford I. Weill and his wife Joan. This hall has been in use since 1891. It was originally called Chamber Music Hall. It is the smallest of the three spaces, with 268 seats.

The recital hall has its own lobby. It was renovated in the 1980s. The walls are off-white, and the seats are blue. The room has three chandeliers. These also help make the sound better.

Other Spaces in Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall has many other rooms. It used to have stores and a restaurant on the ground floor. These were removed during renovations. There was also a dining room and parlors.

The upper floors of the main hall have studios. These were added after the building was finished. Many artists, like Leonard Bernstein and Martha Graham, used to live and work in these studios. They had high ceilings and big windows. Andrew Carnegie wanted these studios to help pay for the hall. By 2010, all the artists had moved out. The spaces are now used for music education and offices.

The building also has the Carnegie Hall Archives. This is where historical records are kept. The Rose Museum opened in 1991. It shows the history of Carnegie Hall.

A Brief History of Carnegie Hall

The idea for Carnegie Hall came from Leopold Damrosch. His son, Walter Johannes Damrosch, continued his father's dream. Walter met businessman Andrew Carnegie in 1887. Carnegie agreed to give $2 million to build a new music hall. At that time, most concert halls were further downtown.

Building and Opening the Hall

In 1889, land was bought for the new music hall. William Tuthill was hired to design it. The building was planned to be five stories tall. It would have a main hall and smaller rooms. Andrew Carnegie's wife, Louise, laid the first stone in 1890.

The Recital Hall opened in March 1891. The main Music Hall officially opened on May 5, 1891. Famous composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky helped conduct the first concert. He thought the hall was "unusually impressive and grand." People praised the hall's amazing sound. It cost $1.25 million to build.

Early Years and Changes

In 1892, there were talks about making the hall bigger. The New York Philharmonic orchestra moved into the Music Hall in 1892. This brought more people to the hall. The studios on the top floors were built between 1894 and 1896. Around this time, the Music Hall was renamed Carnegie Hall. This was to make sure people knew it was a serious music venue.

In the 1920s, the hall was renovated. In 1925, Carnegie's widow sold the hall to Robert E. Simon. He promised to keep it as a performance venue. A new organ was added in 1929. The main hall was also changed a bit in the 1940s for a movie.

Saving Carnegie Hall

By the 1950s, the hall faced problems. The New York Philharmonic planned to move out. The building was almost sold to a developer. They wanted to tear it down and build a skyscraper.

But many people wanted to save Carnegie Hall. Violinist Isaac Stern was a key person in this effort. He got help from others to protect the hall. In 1960, the city government bought the hall for $5 million. The city then leased it to a non-profit group called the Carnegie Hall Corporation. This group now runs the venue.

Carnegie Hall was named a National Historic Landmark in 1962. This helped protect it from being destroyed.

Renovations and Modern Updates

Carnegie Hall has been renovated many times. In the 1960s, the basement recital hall became a movie theater. In the 1970s, the building started to show its age. Pipes burst, and parts of the ceiling fell.

In the 1980s, a big renovation project began. The recital hall and lobby were restored. The lobby was lowered to street level. New elevators and air-conditioning were added. The main hall closed for seven months in 1986 for more upgrades. The recital hall was renamed the Weill Recital Hall.

After the 1986 reopening, some people said the sound was different. They thought there was concrete under the stage. In 1995, the stage was taken apart. They found a concrete slab, which was then removed. This improved the acoustics.

In the late 1990s, the old cinema space was turned into a new performance venue. This became Zankel Hall, which opened in 2003. It was a huge project, involving digging deep under the building.

In 2014, Carnegie Hall opened its Judith and Burton Resnick Education Wing. This new wing has 24 music rooms. It is used for music education programs. The hall closed temporarily in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. It reopened in October 2021.

Amazing Performances and Events

Carnegie Hall has hosted countless famous performances. The first world premiere was Antonín Dvořák's "From the New World" in 1893. Many famous conductors and composers have performed their music here. These include Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

The hall also hosted solo artists like pianists Arthur Rubinstein and Mieczysław Horszowski. The NBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Arturo Toscanini, often recorded here. In 1943, a young Leonard Bernstein made his famous conducting debut at Carnegie Hall.

Diverse Music at the Hall

Carnegie Hall has always been open to everyone. It was not segregated, unlike some other venues. Sissieretta Jones was the first African-American to sing there in 1892.

The hall has welcomed many types of music. In 1912, James Reese Europe's Clef Club Orchestra played an early jazz concert. Many jazz legends have performed here. These include Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. Benny Goodman's 1938 concert was a sold-out swing and jazz event.

Rock and roll came to Carnegie Hall in 1955. Bill Haley & His Comets performed there. In 1964, The Beatles played two shows during their first visit to the U.S. Since then, many rock, blues, and country artists have performed. Led Zeppelin and Chicago have recorded live albums at the hall.

Other Special Events

Carnegie Hall has also been a place for important talks. Booker T. Washington and Mark Twain gave lectures there in 1906. It has also hosted graduation ceremonies for schools like the Juilliard School.

How Carnegie Hall is Managed

As of 2021, Sir Clive Gillinson is the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall. He started in 2005. Robert F. Smith is the chairman of the board.

Carnegie Hall is run by the Carnegie Hall Corporation. This is a non-profit organization. It manages the hall's operations and finances.

The Carnegie Hall Archives

For many years, Carnegie Hall did not have a proper archive. This meant much of its history was scattered. In 1986, the Carnegie Hall Archives were created. This was to prepare for the hall's 100th anniversary in 1991. The archives now collect and preserve the hall's rich history. They were renamed the Carnegie Hall Susan W. Rose Archives in 2021.

Fun Stories and Famous Jokes

The Famous "Practice" Joke

There's a very famous joke about Carnegie Hall: A person on Fifty-seventh Street in Manhattan stopped violinist Jascha Heifetz. They asked, "Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" Heifetz replied, "Yes, practice!"

This joke is a big part of the hall's history. It shows how important practice is for musicians. It also shows how famous Carnegie Hall is. No one knows exactly where the joke came from. But it has been told for many years.

Images for kids

The main entrance has five arches at the first floor.
Andrew Carnegie, the founder of Carnegie Hall, in 1913.
Carnegie Hall in 1895, a few years after it opened.
Carnegie Hall in 1910, showing its grand exterior.
The modern Carnegie Hall Tower stands next to the historic Carnegie Hall.