The NY Phil Story: Made in New York

After almost three years of pop-up outdoor performances and playing in venues around the city, the NY Phil came home to a newly renovated David Geffen Hall in October of 2022. Part of Lincoln Center, the hall originally opened in 1962 to acclaim and controversy on the former site of the San Juan Hill Neighborhood. In this first season back, the NY Phil and Lincoln Center paid tribute to a lost community with a new commission by Etienne Charles.

Learn more about David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, home of the New York Philharmonic. On August 23, 2023, this episode was updated to include additional details about the Afro-Caribbean population of San Juan Hill and the workers contracted to rebuild David Geffen Hall.

The NYPhil Story: Made in New York production team includes Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Helena de Groot, Sapir Rosenblatt, Laura Boyman, Elizabeth Nonemaker, Eileen Delahunty, Christine Herskovits, Natalia Ramirez, and Ed Yim. Our engineering team includes: George Wellington and Ed Haber. Production assistance from: Ben James, and Jac Phillimore and Mary Mathis. Additional audio provided by NYC Municipal Archives. Special thanks to Monica Parks, Adam Crane, Gabe Smith, and the New York Public Radio Archives.

A transcript of this episode is available on our website: nyphilstory.com

The story is a classic in the gilded halls of symphonic music: someone falls ill and a young performer must step in at the last moment. For Leonard Bernstein, that happened live on the radio. During his career as the director of the New York Philharmonic, he advanced the orchestra’s legacy of providing first-rate music to New Yorkers, and eventually to the nation through the televised broadcasts of his Young People’s Concerts. The Phil continues that tradition today with their summer events playing concerts in the parks around the city.

The NYPhil Story: Made in New York production team includes Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Helena de Groot, Sapir Rosenblatt, Laura Boyman, Elizabeth Nonemaker, Eileen Delahunty, Christine Herskovits, Natalia Ramirez, and Ed Yim. Our engineering team includes: George Wellington and Ed Haber. Production assistance from: Ben James, and Jac Phillimore and Mary Mathis. Special thanks to Monica Parks, Adam Crane, Gabe Smith, and the New York Public Radio Archives. Audio footage from Young People's Concerts - Courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc.

A transcript of this episode is available on our website: nyphilstory.com

Do we know when we’re living through history? In 1893, New Yorkers gathered outside Carnegie Hall to hear the ground-breaking premiere of composer Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, better known as the “New World Symphony.” One of the most hotly anticipated premieres in musical history, it was delivered in the midst of a national debate over what a distinctly “American” classical music should sound like — and it was destined to become one of the most beloved works in Western classical repertoire. Over a century later, the NY Phil performed the same work a world away in Pyongyang, North Korea, once again making history, and revisiting those same questions of what it means to perform American music — and how music, regardless of its origin, can serve as a bridge between peoples.

The NYPhil Story: Made in New York production team includes Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Helena de Groot, Sapir Rosenblatt, Laura Boyman, Elizabeth Nonemaker, Eileen Delahunty, Christine Herskovits, Natalia Ramirez, and Ed Yim. Our engineering team includes: George Wellington and Ed Haber. Production assistance from: Ben James, and Jac Phillimore and Mary Mathis. Special thanks to Monica Parks, Adam Crane, Gabe Smith, and the New York Public Radio Archives.

A transcript of this episode is available on our website: nyphilstory.com