In the winter of 1900, more than 7,000 people jammed into the old hall at Cooper Union to hear Franz X. Arens, the son of an immigrant farmer, conduct his series of five Peoples' Symphony Concerts. Subscriptions for the five concerts ranged from $.25 to $1.25 and single tickets went for as little as $0.10 each.
A conducting student in Europe who had been too poor to attend many concerts in his youth, Arens returned to New York determined to find a way to bring music to students, teachers, workers, and others unable to pay normal ticket prices.
Since those early years, hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concerts audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.
With the advent of WWI, it was no longer possible to provide the musicians or money for a full orchestra so concerts were devoted to chamber music and recitals, a practice that has continued through today. During WWII, the Washington Irving concerts continued to play to sell-out audiences. Blocks of tickets were purchased for distribution at USO's in New York and hundreds of men and women in uniform attended the concerts throughout the war.
Past performers include the Guarneri, Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets, pianists Daniel Barenboin, Claudio Arrau and Murray Perahia and violinists Jaime Laredo, Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman.
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