The Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic are the longest-running series of family concerts of classical music in the world.
Symphony concerts for young people in New York City (before 1924) On November 26, 1898, conductor Frank Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra, presented one of the first orchestra concerts in New York City directed at a younger audience, entitled "Symphony Concert for Young People". A year prior, in 1897, Damrosch was named the head of music education for New York City's public schools because of his social mission to teach music to impoverished New Yorkers.
Decades later, between 1914–16, the New York Philharmonic's music director Josef Stránský began leading concerts for young people.
Founding of an annual concert series (1924–1939)
The New York Philharmonic's annual "Young People's Concerts" series was founded in 1924 by conductor "Uncle" Ernest Schelling and Mary Williamson Harriman and Elizabeth "Bessie" Mitchell, co-chairs of the Philharmonic's Educational and Children's Concerts Committee. Schelling designed the concerts to encourage a love of music in children, augmenting the music with demonstrations and talks featuring picture slideshows about composers, instruments, history, and other educational topics. Schelling created over 4,000 magic lantern glass slides to showcase a variety of subjects.
Beginning in 1930, the Young People's Concerts were broadcast as a parallel feature with the Philharmonic's Sunday concerts on CBS Radio to homes across the United States and in Europe. Schelling and the Philharmonic also went directly into New York City's public schools, presenting "School Day" concerts to young students.
The Young People's Concerts became popular with children and their parents, as well as music lovers of all ages. In his first ten years, Schelling led two series of five to six concerts each season. In addition to presenting concerts for children in New York, Schelling also presented concerts on the road in cities such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Rotterdam, and London. Schelling conducted the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic from 1924 until his death in 1939.
After Schelling (1940 to 1958)
Following Schelling's death in 1939, the Young People's Concerts were taken over by Swiss conductor Rudolph Ganz, from 1940 to 1947. Ganz had initially planned six concerts each season at Carnegie Hall, plus a series of three "Elementary", or "Introductory", concerts at New York City's Town Hall for "children with little or no musical training" under the age of nine. However, the Elementary concerts were suspended in 1942 due to World War II and did not resume again until 1947.
In 1947, the Young People's Concert Committee held interviews for the series' next conductor. The Committee voted American conductor Walter Hendl, who went on to lead four concerts. Other conductors were vying for the position, including a young Leonard Bernstein, who had only debuted with the Philharmonic four years prior. Bernstein received only three votes and would not conduct a Young People's Concert until he became music director in 1958.
In 1950, American conductor Igor Buketoff was placed at the helm of all the Philharmonic's children's concerts, following his first guest appearance in the role just two years prior.
In 1953, Canadian conductor Wilfrid Pelletier was appointed conductor of the Young People's Concerts. In Pelletier's final season, 1956-17, the elementary series for younger children was dissolved yet again.
Leonard Bernstein on CBS (1958–72) Leonard Bernstein brought the Young People's Concerts to a new level of popular attention as music director of the New York Philharmonic, beginning in 1958. Bernstein wrote, conducted, and narrated a total of 53 episodes from 1958 to 1972, all of which were telecast on CBS and syndicated in over 40 countries. Reaching millions of families across the United States and around the world, these concerts inspired entire generations of musicians and music lovers.
Bernstein's first concert as music director and Conductor, on January 18, 1958, at Carnegie Hall in New York, was the first of these programs to be televised, "What Does Music Mean?" In 1962, the Young People's Concerts became the first series of concerts broadcast live from Lincoln Center. Initially broadcast on Saturdays (episodes 1–7) and Sundays (episodes 8–15), the concerts eventually moved to primetime (episodes 16–40) before returning to Sunday afternoons (episodes 41–53).
Although Bernstein left the position of music director in 1969, he continued to lead the Young People's Concerts as Conductor Emeritus until 1972, concluding in March 1972 with a television series finale devoted to Gustav Holst's The Planets.
The series won five Emmy Awards between 1962 and 1966. No. Title Original airdate Featured guests Music Selections 1 What Does Music Mean? January 18, 1958 William Tell Overture (Rossini); Don Quixote (R. Strauss); Pastoral Symphony (Beethoven); Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky); Symphony No 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 (Tchaikovsky); Symphony No 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 (Tchaikovsky); Six Pieces (Webern); La Valse (Ravel) 2 What is American Music? February 1, 1958 Aaron Copland An American in Paris (Gershwin); Overture (George W. Chadwick); New World Symphony (Dvorâk); Dance on Place Congo (Henry F. Gilbert); Ragtime (Stravinsky); Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin); American Festival Overture (William Schuman); Symphony No 3 (Roy Harris); Symphony No 2 (Randall Thompson); Mother of Us All (Virgil Thomson); Music for the Theatre (Copland); Billy the Kid (Copland); Symphony No 3 (Copland) 3 What is Orchestration? March 8, 1958 Capriccio Espagnol (Rimsky-Korsakov) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy); Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin); Brandenburg Concerto No, 3 (Bach); Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev); American Symphony (William Schuman); The Soldier's Story (Stravinsky); Boléro (Ravel) 4 What Makes Music Symphonic? December 13, 1958 Jupiter Symphony in C Major, K.551 (Mozart); Symphony No 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 (Tchaikovsky); Eroica Symphony in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Beethoven); Marching song from Bridge Over the River Kwai; I'm All Shook Up (E. Presley); Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky); Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin); Frère Jacques; Symphony No 2 in D Major, Op. 77 (Brahms) 5 What is Classical Music? January 24, 1959 Water Music (Handel); Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K.467 (Mozart); Brandenburg Concerto No 4 (Bach); Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart); Symphony No 102 in B-flat Major (Haydn); Egmont Overture (Beethoven) 6 Humor in Music February 28, 1959 Ballet Music (Walter Piston); Mosquito Dance (Paul White); An American in Paris (Gershwin); Hary Janos Suite (Kodaly); Symphony No 88 in G Major (Haydn); Classical Symphony (Prokofiev); Symphony No 1 in D Major (Mahler); A Musical Joke (Mozart); Polka from the Golden Age (Shostakovich); Burlesque from Music for the Theater (Copland); Symphony No 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 (Brahms) 7 What is a Concerto? March 28, 1959 John Corigliano Sr.; John Wummer; William Lincer Concerto for two Mandolins, Strings and Cembalo in C Major (Vivaldi); Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (Bach); Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat Major, K.364 (Mozart); Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 (Mendelssohn) Concerto For Orchestra (Bartok) 8 Who is Gustav Mahler? February 7, 1960 Reri Grist; Helen Raab; William Lewis Symphony No. 4 in G Major Symphony No 2 in C Minor/E-flat Major; Symphony No 1 in D Major; Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Das Lied von der Erde; 9 Young Performers No. 1 March 6, 1960 Daniel Domb; Kenneth Schermerhorn; Barry Finclair; Stefan B. Mengelberg; Alexandra Wager Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104 (Dvorak) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in D Minor (Wieniawski) Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev) 10 Unusual Instruments of Present, Past, and Future March 27, 1960 New York Pro Musica; Noah Greenberg; Vladimir Ussachevsky; Anita Darian Toccata, "Little Train of Caipira" from Bachianas Brasileiras No 2 (Villa-Lobos); Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 (Bach), Canzon Septimi Toni (G. Gabrieli), Alta (De La Torre) Concerted piece for Tape Recorder and Orchestra (Luening-Ussachevsky) Concerto for a Singing Instrument (Bucci) 11 The Second Hurricane April 24, 1960 High School of Music & Art The Second Hurricane (Copland) 12 Overtures and Preludes January 8, 1961 Semiramide Overture (Rossini); Leonore Overture No. 3 (Beethoven); Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy); Candide Overture (Bernstein) 13 Aaron Copland Birthday Party February 12, 1961 Aaron Copland; William Warfield An Outdoor Overture (Copland); Dance from Music for the Theatre (Copland) Grovers Corners Our Town (the Music for Movies arrangement) (Copland); Hoe-down from Rodeo (Copland); Grovers Corners Our Town (the Music for Movies arrangement) Dogmatic from Statements for Orchestra (Copland) Boatmen's Dance and I Bought me a Cat from Old American Songs (Copland) El Salon Mexico (Copland) 14 Young Performers No. 2 March 19, 1961 Lynn Harrell; Elyakum Shapirra; Jung-Ja Kim; Russell Stanger; Veronica Tyler; Gregory Millar; Henry Chapin Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104 (Dvorak) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 (Chopin) Mimi's Farewell from La Boheme and Hello, Hello, from The Telephone (Menotti) The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Britten) 15 Folk Music in the Concert Hall April 9, 1961 Marni Nixon Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K.543 (Mozart) Sinfonia India (Chavez) Songs of the Auvergne (arranged by Canteloube) Symphony No. 2 (Ives) 16 What is Impressionism? November 23, 1961 Voiles from Piano Preludes, Bk. I; Poissons D'or from Images, Set II; La Puerta del Vino from Preludes, Bk. II; Golliwogg's Cakewalk from Children's Corner; La Mer (Debussy) Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2 (Ravel) 17 The Road to Paris January 18, 1962 Zara Nelsova An American in Paris (Gershwin); Schelomo (Bloch) Two Dances from The Three Cornered Hat (de Falla) 18 Happy Birthday, Igor Stravinsky March 26, 1962 Greeting Prelude (Stravinsky) Petrouchka (Stravinsky) 19 Young Performers No. 3 April 14, 1962 Seiji Ozawa; Gary Karr; Maurice Peress; John Canarina; Ruth & Naomi Segal; Paula Robison; Paul Green; Tony Cirone; David Hopper Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) Prayer (Bloch-Antonini) Fantasy on a Theme from the Opera "Moses in Egypt" by Rossini (Paganini-Reinshagen, transcribed for orchestra by Gary Karr) The Carnival of the Animals (Saint Saens) 20 The Sound of a Hall November 21, 1962Shirley Verrett; John Corigliano, Sr.; Frank Gullino; Joseph Bernstein; William Dembinsky The Roman Carnival Overture (Berlioz) The Little Horses from Old American Songs (Copland) Concerto for Four Violins and String Orchestra Op. 3, No. 10 (Vivaldi) Tango Pasodoble from Facade (Walton) 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) 21 What is a Melody? December 21, 1962 Prelude to Tristan and Isolde (Wagner); Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K.550 (Mozart); Concerto Music for Strings and Brass, Op. 50 (Hindemith); Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 (Brahms). 22 Young Performers No. 4 January 15, 1963 Joan Weiner; Yuri Krasnopolsky; Claudia Hoca; Zoltán Rozsnyai; Pamela Paul; Serge Fournier; André Watts Piano Concerto in A Major, K.488 (Mozart) and Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major (Liszt) 23 The Latin American Spirit March 8, 1963 Netania Davrath Batuque (Fernandez); Bachianas Brasileiras Nn 5 (Villa-Labos) Sensemaya (Revueltas); Danzon Cubano (Copland);