What It’s Like Inside Carnegie Hall

One of the most famous musical destinations in the entire world, a must-see stop in Midtown Manhattan and National History Landmark for over sixty years now, Carnegie Hall is perhaps the most well-known concert venue ever known. It has played host to thousands of musical acts over its history and is considered not just a venue for shows but a center of cultural education and a significant part of New York City’s history.

Here we’re going to look at everything you need to know about Carnegie Hall, from its history to its significance and even how you can enjoy and support it today.

History

The Founding of the Hall

Opened in 1891, Carnegie Hall has been an establishment of musical excellence for over a hundred years, with a unique history, from its origin to its evolution and even the decision of where to place it all carefully planned to make it one of the cultural hotspots of the whole world.

Carnegie Hall was originally built by Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist and philanthropist who made his fortune in the steel industry. The idea for the hall was first inspired by his wife Louise, a singer with the Oratoria Society in New York. The story goes that on their honeymoon, she, alongside Walter Damrosch, a conductor in the same society, asked him to build a home for music in New York City.

The hall’s original design was by William Burnet Tuthill, who was both a professional architect as well as a cellist who, despite having never built a concert hall before, agreed to work on the project. Construction of the hall began in 1890, a year before its opening, with work by Isaac A. Hopper and Company. 

While the hall was in use during 1890, its official opening evening was May 5, 1891. The hall’s first show was as momentous as its legacy would be, with Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, conducting his own music in what would be his debut in the United States

Passing from the Carnegie family

Though named after Andrew Carnegie, the hall was sold less than forty years after its opening, when his widow sold it to Robert E. Simon, a real estate developer, who later passed it onto his son, Robert E. Simon Jr.. The hall had begun to fall into disrepair, however, even as Robert Jr. began a host of renovations and he planned to sell it after the Hall’s most frequent act, the New York Philharmonic, moved to perform in the Lincoln Center instead.

The hall was then sold to commercial developer Glickmann Corporation, who had plans to demolish the building to make way for a skyscraper. However, by this time, the hall had already come to take on great significance for many performers in the city. A campaign, led by famous violinist Isaac Stern alongside a range of civic leaders, convinced the city of New York to buy the building and name it a National History Landmark in 1962.

Bringing the Hall into the 21st Century

Since then, Carnegie Hall has undergone a range of building-wide renovations, with the most major projects taking place in 1986 and 2003, led by James Stewart Polshek. His team, Polshek Partnership, was responsible not only for the renovation of the original hall but for the following expansions to the building, turning it into what it is now known as.

Since then, the Hall has continued to delight both New York City natives and thousands of visitors each year with multiple stages, museums, education programs, and more. It has played home to artists and composers of all kinds through orchestral performances, jazz concerts, oratory spectacles, and has played a key role in all manner of cultural festivals within the city. Aside from the Hall’s own presentations, it hosts over 500 independently produced shows and events each and every year. The latest change to the Hall took place in 2014, in which the Studio Towers Renovation Project added a 60,000-square-foot education wing to the upper floors of the Hall.

Carnegie Hall Today

Nowadays, Carnegie Hall is best known for the wide range of fantastic musical performances that it hosts on each of its three stages. Its participation in cultural and musical festivals has ensured that it endures as one of the key hearts of the arts in New York City. 

In the 2015–2016 season, Carnegie Hall celebrated its 125th anniversary and continues to act as one of the most important cultural touchstones in not just New York City but in the whole of the United States and the world.

Carnegie Hall’s Significance to New York City

Without a doubt, Carnegie Hall is the music venue that has seen more performances from world-famous musicians, singers, actors, and orators than any other venue in the US — and perhaps even the world. Though newer venues have taken some of their role as the most active place to catch contemporary performances, it’s still one of the best known performing arts spaces in the Western World.

Carnegie Hall has been home to a host of famous performances throughout the years, hosting names such as Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Ray Charles, Tony Bennet, B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and more.

While originally a concert hall for all manners of chamber music, it has expanded to provide space for the jazz and rock world throughout its history and in 1991 was awarded The Hundred Year Association of New York’s Gold Medal Award.

The acoustics of the Hall

One of the most interesting aspects of Carnegie Hall, which has made it such an important place for musical acts throughout the years, is the acoustics of the space. Isaac Stern even made the following comment of it, which became a quote that would remain in the heart of musicians for decades: “Everywhere in the world, music enhances a hall, with one exception—Carnegie Hall enhances the music.”

The acoustics of the hall were designed by William Burnet Tuthill, a cellist as well as an architect, who toured throughout Europe, learning about acoustic design, and sought help from Danmark Adler, another architect who had worked on the Auditorium Building in Chicago. Together they worked to keep their approach to the decorations simple and functional, ensuring no frescoed walls or chandeliers would inhibit the sound.

Furthermore, the hall was built with smooth walls, an elliptical shape, and a domed ceiling that would help better project both soft and loud tones. Since its design, many have attempted to enhance the look and sound of the hall with curtains, backdrops, panels, and more, but without fail, each has been removed, restoring the design to the original as intended by William Burnet Tuthill.

The Hall even had a spot of controversy following the 1986 renovation and reconstruction of the main auditorium. Many acts who had performed there began to lodge complaints that the famous acoustics had been lost as a result, a claim which the officials involved in the renovation denied consistently. After over nine years of complaints, a slab of concrete beneath the stage was found to be the cause of the concerns and its removal rejuvenated the legendary sound of the hall once again, as it is still well known to this day.

Location

Carnegie Hall stands as one of the most famous destinations within Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It can be found on 881 Seventh Avenue, stretching from the east end of the avenue from West 56th Street to West 57th Street. Seventh Avenue Intersects with both Broadway and 42nd Street at Times Square. Other buildings on this avenue include the Alwyn Court Apartments, AXA Center, Madison Square Garden and Penn Station. 57th Street, on which Carnegie Hall can be found, is also the street where you can find Osborne Apartments and Rodin Studios.

About the Halls

Though we refer to the building as Carnegie Hall, there are, in fact, multiple halls. It has three distinct and separate halls, the original Main Hall, the Recital Hall, and the Chamber Music Hall. Now these halls are called the Isaac Stern Auditorium, the Zankel Hall, and the Weill Recital Hall, respectively.

The Main Hall

The original hall, which has since been renovated and rebuilt, is the most famous of the three halls, well-known for the above-described acoustics. Able to seat over 2800 people across five levels, it was once home to the New York Philharmonic, and still hosts the majority of large shows that the Hall puts on or welcomes from independent performers. The hall is designed entirely using masonry, without steel frames, and is uniquely tall, requiring over 105 steps to reach the very top levels (though an elevator has since been added to make the climb a little more accessible)

Zankel Hall

The most recently added of the three halls, Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, was opened in 1891. Since then it has become a major venue for chamber music and recitals, as well as all manner of contemporary performances. The hall is able to seat 599 people and was originally known as the Recital Hall. It was also the first of the auditoriums to be opened to the public, leased to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1898, made into a cinema in 1959, and then converted back into an auditorium in 1997. Its most recent reconstruction was in 2003.

The Weill Recital Hall

Named for Sanford I. Weill, a chairman on the Carnegie Hall’s board, as well as his wife Joan, this hall was originally opened in 1891. The hall, which seats 268, was originally known as the Chamber Music Hall, then the Carnegie Recital Hall, before it finally got its most recent name in 1986.

As well as the three halls mentioned above, Carnegie Hall has since expanded to provide room for a host of other locations, such as the Carnegie Hall Archives and the Rose Museum, added in 1986 and 1991 respectively.

The Costs to Build

Carnegie Hall is a building that has gone through a lot of work over the years and had a lot of money spent on it. The original total cost of the building, when it was financed primarily by Andrew Carnegie, was $1.1 million. Some estimates state that the building would cost $370 million to build today, with an additional $145 million to buy the land that would host it.

The renovations all came with costs as well, the exact figures on which are harder to find. However, the most recent project, which was the reopening of the Judith and Burton Resnick Education Wing, was paid for as part of a $230 million project. The earlier renovation in 1986 also cost roughly $50 million. As such, the overall known cost, which is still far from a complete calculation, would be over $281 million.

Interesting Facts About Carnegie Hall

What was there before Carnegie Hall?

Carnegie Hall was not built on an empty lot within Seventh Avenue, which would have been as difficult to find back in the late 1800s as it is, today. Rather, Goat Hill, which was what the area was once known as, was previously the site of a brewery. This brewery was built to take advantage of a natural spring on the site but was bought and demolished when Andrew Carnegie and others saw what would become Midtown for the potential focal point of Manhattan that it eventually became.

The architecture style of the hall

The design of Carnegie Hall was derived from an Italian Renaissance style, using Revivalist brick-and-brownstone. As mentioned, the interior of the hall was designed with as minimal decorations as allowed, including smooth walls and no thick curtains or lighting fixtures to allow for the best possible acoustics. Furthermore, the building is one of the last large buildings in the city to be built entirely using masonry, without the help of steel frames. A steel frame was later added, however, when additional spaces were built onto the building. Nowadays, the exterior uses narrow Roman bricks of ocher for the facade.

The hall wasn’t originally named Carnegie

It’s easy to assume that Andrew Carnegie, being the enterprising individual he was, chose the name Carnegie Hall as a tribute to himself or his wife. This was not the case, however. The building was originally called the Music Hall and, indeed, a sign calling it “Music Hall founded by Andrew Carnegie” can still be found above the marquee. However, board members of the governing body of the hall persuaded Andrew Carnegie to allow the building to use his name, a name that stuck through three different owners after it was sold out of the Carnegie family and eventually into the City of New York’s ownership.

There was once a cinema inside Carnegie Hall

Though it is best known for musical performances, Carnegie Hall has been a venue for almost every form of art imaginable, including oration, theater, dance, and more. It was also once a place where film could be celebrated. What is now called Zankel Hall had fallen into disuse and was used by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as a performance space. From there it became an art-house cinema and even a commercial cinema operated by Cineplex Odeon in 1987. Following the latest renovation and renaming, it has been turned back into a performance space.

It was originally going to be green on top

Green roofing might sound like a relatively new concept, but a rooftop garden was actually in the original plans for Carnegie Hall too. In fact, the late 1800s saw rooftop gardens being quite in fashion, and they could be seen on both Madison Square Garden and Hotel Astor, for instance. While a rooftop garden was never added, a rooftop space was eventually added, offering a view over the surrounding streets of Seventh Avenue.

It has an old joke to its name

Carnegie Hall has remained a fixture of New York City for over a century, so it’s no surprise that it features in a classic New Yorker anecdote too. The story goes that a tourist was on Fifty-Seventh Street in Manhattan and stopped Jascha Heifetz, a renowned Russian-American violinist for directions. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” To which Heifetz is said to have replied “Practice.” Even today, ask that question in New York and it’s fifty-fifty as to whether you’ll get real directions or get given the joke answer instead.

The Artist Studios weren’t originally as Bohemian as they are today

Nowadays the Artist Studios are revered as a place for Bohemian creativity, where artists may gather, share ideas, jam, and let their muse take over. However, originally it was designed to be a much more exclusive place, which shows in the rather elaborate and upper-class manner of decor afforded to them. This includes a fireplace in some of the grander studios, as well as staircases with banisters that would connect different levels to one another. The Studios would eventually become famous for, amongst other things, being where Leonard Bernstein wrote “West Side Story.”

Donors

Given that Carnegie Hall has been a New York City-owned building for decades now, most of the funding for its various renovations, reconstructions, and rebuildings have come from a mixture of grants and, in larger part, the donations of a host of contributors, philanthropists, and patrons of the arts.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice. Now that we’ve gotten the old joke out of the way, the easiest way to get to Carnegie Hall is by subway, bus, or train. The best way to get to the Hall is from New York Penn Station. From there, you can take Line 1 on the subway for a ride that takes no more than 8 minutes. The bus route Mid Town AM Inbound takes 24 minutes in the day, while the B99 takes 16 minutes at night. You can also order a taxi, which takes no more than 3 minutes. You can also find it from Central Park by taking the C Subway train, which takes 17 minutes. Carnegie Hall is, thankfully, not too difficult to find, given how straight Seventh Avenue is and how much it dominates the corner of the street that it’s on.

What It’s Like Inside Carnegie Hall

If you’ve never been to Carnegie Hall, here are a few observations I had as I was able to roam almost the entire hall. I’m not a music guy with a music background, but because of my kids, I’ve become fascinated with music, composition, and the history of it all. I’ve also come to love visiting and watching my kids perform in some of the most prestigious concerts halls in the world. Obviously, Carnegie Hall is one of those famed halls that most musicians would like to play in at some time in their life.

Since I was writing a book for one of the performing orchestras and choirs, I was able to see backstage and virtually everywhere else. Let me just tell you that if you’re into American history, this is a must visit. You’ll be able to see the early American New York style architecture everywhere in this place!

The performers usually enter in by a back door on 56th street. From there, they can go to their various staging rooms and access the backstage areas.

Many people don’t realize that Carnegie Hall is actually home to three difference performance halls within the one building. In fact, multiple performances may be taking place at the same time.

When I was backstage during one performance in the main hall, I could see on the backstage screen monitors where other piano and violin performances were taking place.

If you are coming to the hall as a spectator, you’ll normally enter in on 57th street and have your ticket checked at the door.

When you walk in, you’ll see lots of ushers. You will either be sent up the stairs to find your seat in one of the balconies or directly into the Parquet level or the main floor.

There is really not a bad seat in the house unless your view is obstructed in some way. If you are on the Parquet level, look for something toward the middle in rows L through Q. Again, everywhere is good, but those rows are going to give you the best balance of sound and view from that level.

My favorite place is on the first tier on what is called the Blavatnik Family tier. Depending on your eyesight, you may want to go for sections 1-9 or sections 57-65. That will get you your best view while keeping you close to the stage.

The chairs inside the hall have that elegant maroon color and all of them are very comfortable with enough leg room for myself at 6’3″.

Backstage is a sight to see. There are pictures on the walls that display the Hall’s rich history. There’s a lounge for the orchestra and performers where you can only imagine who has stood there and prepared for their time to go on stage.

The crew in the back are on top of it all. They know exactly what they’re doing and are fantastic at supporting the cast and performers as well as the backstage logistics people for the performers.

We set a record as the largest performing group in the history of the hall including young children and the Carnegie Hall staff accommodated us in every way possible to make it a good experience for everyone involved.

Inside of Carnegie Hall is very different than most of the other halls I have visited. It is an old hall and you know it right when you walk in. It’s very open and optimized for the best acoustics possible. It was one of the best experiences of my life being there.