In Tuesday’s (10/2) New York Times, Robert D. McFadden writes, “Carlos Moseley, who took the New York Philharmonic into Lincoln Center a half-century ago, and then into the city’s parks and neighborhoods while presiding over enormous growth as the orchestra’s managing director, president and chairman, died on Monday at his home in Spartanburg, S.C. He was 98. … In Mr. Moseley’s 24 years as a senior manager and board official, from 1961 to 1985, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and Zubin Mehta flourished as music directors; audiences tripled; income and contributions rose annually; performance tours and festivals proliferated; television appearances increased; and the Philharmonic radio network was established. … After moving the Philharmonic from Carnegie Hall to the new Lincoln Center in 1962, he oversaw years of redesign and reconstruction of its home, today called Avery Fisher Hall … Mr. Moseley also took the orchestra out into the city to perform at churches, community centers and union halls in Harlem, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. And it was Mr. Moseley who originated one of New York’s most enduring cultural hits: free summer Philharmonic concerts in the parks. … It was spectacular from the start. On Aug. 10, 1965, 70,000 people—the largest crowd in the orchestra’s history—descended on the Sheep Meadow to hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”
Posted October 2, 2012
