Musical New York City

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. He was born in the nation’s capital Washington D.C. but came into the public eye at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, New York in the late 1920s. His many compositions included jazz pieces, musicals, ballets, operas, and concert pieces. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Nixon in 1969 as well as numerous other awards and honors. He made his home in NYC at 333 Riverside Drive in a Beaux-Arts townhouse. He used his home as headquarters for his publishing company and for Sunday jazz salons. In 1977 the adjacent West 106th Street was named Duke Ellington Boulevard after his death.

Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff moved into 505 West End Avenue with his wife in 1926. He had servants and butlers who spoke Russian and he entertained his fellow Russian artist emigres with caviar. He composed much of his Fourth Piano Concerto at this address.

American band leader, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis moved into a Renaissance Revival brownstone at 312 West 77th Street. Previously this had been a Russian Orthodox Church. It served as his main residence from 1960 to 1985. In the basement, he built a music room and a gym and rented out the two upper floors. In 2014 77th Street became Miles Davis Way.

American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian Leonard Bernstein brought the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to world fame. His most popular musical for Broadway “West Side Story” was set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He chose to live at one of the most famous and well-known apartment buildings in NYC, The Dakota at 1 West 72nd Street. It is and has been home to bohemian actors, writers, and musicians among them John Lennon.

Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation Gustav Mahler rented an 11th-floor suite at The Majestic at 115 Central Park West. Today it is also known as The Majestic Apartments and is a cooperative apartment building.

Russian composer and conductor with French and US citizenships Igor Stravinsky is considered to be one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. He chose The Ansonia at 2107 – 2109 Broadway as his home. This is a Beaux Arts building and one of the most extravagant on Broadway. It has mansard roofs, towers, and Parisian-style balconies. Over the years his most famous guest have been Sergei Rachmaninoff, conductor Arturo Toscanini, and tenor Enrico Caruso.

American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown Charles Ives lived at 65 Central Park West. In 1898 he moved in with other young bachelors who were Yale alumni. Here the composer wrote “The Unanswered Question” and “Central Park in the Dark”. In 1908 he married and moved out.

American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later conductor of his own and other American music Aaron Copland was referred to as the “Dean of American Composers”. He was born in the borough of Brooklyn and moved to Manhattan in 1936. He set up house at The Empire Hotel at 115 West 63rd Street. His room was number 1040 and contained an upright piano. He also rented a loft at 113 West 63rd Street and kept both until 1947.

American composer and conductor Emma Roberta Steiner was one of the first women in the US to make a living as a conductor. She conducted over 6,000 performances in her lifetime. She composed light operas, orchestral, and piano pieces and songs. In the 1920s she conducted at the Metropolitan Opera. She lived at 30 West 61st Street.

American composer and pianist Amy Beach moved to NYC in 1930. She lived in an 11th-floor studio at the American Women’s Association residence hall for women at 353 West 57th Street. As she sat at her piano she could see ocean liners docking along the Hudson River. Today this is the Henry Hudson Hotel.

Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist Bela Bartok is among the most important composers of the 20th century. He and his wife settled at 309 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan just two blocks from Carnegie Hall in 1945. At the entrance to this building is a bust and a plaque marking Bartok’s stay here. Here he wrote his Viola and Third Piano Concertos.

Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite Alma Mahler is the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano and works in other genres. Only 17 songs are known to survive. She lived at 120 East 73rd Street and in 1952 bought four adjoining apartments in the townhouse.

American composer and pianist George Gershwin has compositions in the popular, jazz, and classical genres. Among his best-known works are “Rhapsody in Blue”, “An American in Paris”, and the song “Swanee” among others. He was born in the borough of Brooklyn but was raised on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. At the age of 15 he was working for the Tin Pan Alley Publishing Company. His final home was a 14-room duplex at 132 East 72nd Street near Lexington Avenue. The duplex included artwork, three Steinway pianos, and a desk specially designed large enough for orchestral manuscript paper.

German-born American composer Kurt Weill moved from the St. Moritz Hotel to a two-bedroom duplex at 231 East 62nd Street. He bought the duplex from proceeds from his work on Hollywood films. Among his hit musicals were “Knickerbocker Holiday” and “Lady in the Dark”.

Queens

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and vocalist Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. From 1943 until his death in 1971, he lived in the borough of Queens in NYC. He lived in the neighborhood of Corona close to Flushing Meadows Park where the Unisphere from the World’s Fair in 1964 still stands. He lived on a quiet residential block with century-old detached homes with small cement porches and aluminum siding. He lived there until his death in 1971. His house is now a museum and a New York landmark.