Peoples' Symphony Concerts

History

The Peoples' Symphony Concerts series was founded in 1900 by the conductor Franz Arens, with the purpose of bringing the best music to students and workers for minimum prices. That winter, more than 7,000 people jammed into the old hall at Cooper Union to hear Mr. 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.

Specialties

Peoples' Symphony Concerts presents classical music performances of the highest caliber at affordable ticket prices for New Yorkers on a budget. Today, we offer a set of six-concert series tickets on Saturday evenings for as little as $56, or approximately $9.33 per ticket, and a Sunday afternoon series for as little as $58 or $9.66 per concert, allowing students, families and others the opportunity to hear amazing concerts for less than half the cost of a movie. The performing artists play for a fraction of their normal fees, enabling Peoples' Symphony Concerts to offer world-class concerts in two hall with some of the finest acoustics in New York City - Town Hall in Times Square and the historic Washington Irving High School near Union Square.