Jordan Hall is a 1,019-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall

Symphony Hall, Boston

Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...

, and together they are considered two of America's most acoustically perfect performance spaces. It is the only conservatory building in the United States to be designated a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

.

The hall opened in 1903, as a gift of Eben D. Jordan II, a Conservatory trustee and a Jordan of the Jordan Marsh

Jordan Marsh

Jordan Marsh & Company was a department store in Boston, Massachusetts, which grew to be a major regional chain in the New England area of the United States. In 1996, the last of the Jordan Marsh stores were converted to Macy's. The store was formerly part of Allied Stores and then Federated...

 retail store. Its architect was Edmund M. Wheelwright

Edmund M. Wheelwright

Edmund March Wheelwright was one of New England's most important architects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and served as city architect for Boston, Massachusetts from 1891-1895....

 of Boston's Wheelwright & Haven, who later designed nearby Horticultural Hall

Horticultural Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

Horticultural Hall, at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, was built in 1901. It sits across the street from Symphony Hall. Since 1992, it has been owned by the Christian Science Church...

. The hall's unusual square floor plan reflects its underlying plot of land but despite its shape, the hall has excellent acoustics, and all seats on both the main floor and horseshoe-shaped balcony have unobstructed views of the stage. The hall's prominent organ is modeled upon one found in a church within the former hospital complex of Santa Maria della Scala

Santa Maria della Scala (Siena)

Santa Maria della Scala is a former hospital, now turned into a museum complex, in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Located next to the city's cathedral, it is one of the most ancient European hospitals....

 in Siena

Siena

Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...

, now a museum.

The dedication concert of Jordan Hall, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, took place on October 20, 1903, and created quite a stir. Effusive newspaper accounts deemed the hall "unequaled the world over," and the Boston Globe reported that it was "a place of entertainment that European musicians who were present that evening say excels in beauty anything of the kind they ever saw."

Jordan Hall has won numerous awards since it restoration in 1995, including the 1996 Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award, the Victorian Society in America's Preservation Commendation, the 1996 Boston Preservation Alliance Award, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Award of Merit, and the Illuminating Engineering Society

Illuminating Engineering Society of North America

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America is a non-profit learned society that was founded in New York City on January 10, 1906. The IES's stated mission is to improve the lighted environment by bringing together those with lighting knowledge and by translating that knowledge into...

 1996 Lumen Award. The Conservatory's main building, which includes Jordan Hall, was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

 in 1994; in both cases the name used is New England Conservatory of Music.

Innumerable performances have taken place in Jordan Hall, including some 650 student performances a year as well as appearances by virtually every important classical musician of the past century. That list includes performers Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

, Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

, the Martha Graham

Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...

 Dance Company, James Galway

James Galway

- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...

, pianists Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt, OC, OBE is a Canadian classical pianist. She holds British nationality through her father, Godfrey, who was the organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa, Ontario for almost fifty years.-Career:...

, Radu Lupu

Radu Lupu

Radu Lupu is a Romanian concert pianist. He has won a number of the most prestigious awards in classical piano, including first prizes in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition....

, Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....

, Richard Goode

Richard Goode

Richard Goode is an American classical pianist, especially known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and chamber music.Goode was born in East Bronx, New York...

, Krystian Zimerman

Krystian Zimerman

Krystian Zimerman is a Polish classical pianist who is widely regarded as one of the finest living pianists.-Biography:...

, Garrick Ohlsson

Garrick Ohlsson

Garrick Ohlsson is an American classical pianist.Ohlsson was the first American to win first prize in the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, in 1970. He also won first prize at the Busoni Competition in Italy and the Montreal Piano Competition in Canada...

, Yundi Li, Richard Stoltzman

Richard Stoltzman

Richard Stoltzman is an American clarinetist. Born Richard Leslie Stoltzman in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory...

 and Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...

; vocalists Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...

, Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...

, Ben Heppner

Ben Heppner

Ben Heppner, CC is a Canadian tenor, specializing in opera and other classical works for voice.Heppner was born in Murrayville, British Columbia, and lived in Dawson Creek...

, David Daniels, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was an American mezzo-soprano, known for the dramatic power of her vocal artistry as well as her commitment to performing infrequently-heard Baroque era and contemporary works...

; guitarists Andrés Segovia

Andrés Segovia

Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...

, Christopher Parkening

Christopher Parkening

Christopher Parkening is an American classical guitarist.Parkening was born in Los Angeles, California, and pursued music in part because of his cousin Jack Marshall, a studio musician in the 1960s. Marshall first introduced Parkening to the recordings of Andrés Segovia when he was 11, and...

, Julian Bream

Julian Bream

Julian Bream, CBE is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute....

, and Sérgio

Sergio Assad

Sérgio Assad is a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger who often performs with his brother in the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad, commonly referred to as Assad Brothers or Duo Assad.-Biography:...

 and Odair Assad; conductors Arthur Fiedler

Arthur Fiedler

Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...

 and Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...

; composers Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 and Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

; jazz legends Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

 and Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

; and the Budapest, Juilliard

Juilliard String Quartet

The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists,...

, Guarneri

Guarneri Quartet

The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. During the quartet's early years the members were in residence at Harpur College in upstate New York....

 and Tokyo

Tokyo String Quartet

The is an international string quartet.The group formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music. The founding members attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where they studied with Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its formation the Quartet won First Prizes at the Coleman Competition,...

 string quartets.

Jordan Hall is home to From the Top

From the Top

From the Top is a national program and initiative to develop and showcase young classical musicians. It is best known for its NPR radio and PBS television programs hosted by pianist Christopher O'Riley, which celebrate the passion, dedication and personal stories of America's best young classical...

, a National Public Radio classical music show hosted by New England Conservatory alumnus Christopher O'Riley

Christopher O'Riley

Christopher O'Riley is an American classical pianist and public radio show host. He is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top. O'Riley is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative artists....

. In addition, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...

, New England String Ensemble

New England String Ensemble

New England String Ensemble was founded in 1993 by violinist Peter Stickel and cellist John Bumstead to champion strings in performance and education and is one of the country’s leading professional string orchestras...

, Festival Youth Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony

Boston Civic Symphony

The Boston Civic Symphony is the second oldest orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts....

, and the Boston Philharmonic

Boston Philharmonic

The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra is a semi-professional orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1979....

play many of their concerts at Jordan Hall.