Carnegie Hall

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice" — the old joke captures the venue's outsized place in American musical life. Built by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1891 with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky himself conducting, Carnegie Hall became the aspirational summit for classical musicians, and later for jazz greats and popular artists, from Benny Goodman's 1938 jazz concert to The Beatles' 1964 American debut performances. Its acclaimed acoustics and storied stage have made simply playing there a marker of artistic arrival.

Andrew Carnegie financed the concert hall at the urging of conductor Walter Damrosch and his violinist brother-in-law, seeking a world-class venue befitting New York's growing cultural ambitions. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill in an Italian Renaissance style, the hall opened on May 5, 1891, with a five-day music festival featuring Tchaikovsky as guest conductor, one of his only appearances in the United States.

Over the following decades, Carnegie Hall became home to the New York Philharmonic and hosted a who's-who of classical performers, while also opening its stage to popular and jazz music. Benny Goodman's January 1938 concert there is often credited with legitimizing jazz as a serious art form worthy of the classical stage, and in 1964 The Beatles played two sold-out shows during their first American tour.

By the mid-20th century, the New York Philharmonic's planned move to the new Lincoln Center in the early 1960s threatened Carnegie Hall with demolition to make way for a skyscraper. Violinist Isaac Stern led a public campaign that saved the building, and the City of New York purchased it in 1960, placing it under the nonprofit Carnegie Hall Corporation. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and remains one of the most prestigious concert venues in the world.