The world's most famous concert hall, New York City's Carnegie Hall, opened in 1891, proved important as an institution and, by setting a critical precedent for financing in the 1950s, for the future of the performing arts in America.

Designed by William Burnet Tuthill, an architect with a musical ear, the hall was praised for both its architecture and its acoustics following the opening performances by Tchaikovsky. Carnegie Hall's prestigious reputation was established by the quality of the performers who appeared there, and the way to get there was to "practice, practice, practice," the success or failure of a Carnegie Hall debut often determining whether or not a performer established a successful career.

Olin Downes, a music critic at the New York Times, wrote, "In the first quarter of this century [the city] became the musical center of the world. Nowhere else was to be met in...