Newark Symphony Hall
Encyclopedia
Newark Symphony Hall at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...


was built in 1925 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It was known for many years as The Mosque Theater.

Design and construction

Originally built by the Shriners at a cost of more than $2 million as Salaam Temple and coloquially known as The Mosque, the four-storey building has been Newark Symphony Hall since 1964. The interior features a Greek and Egyptian motifs, marble columns, a crystal chandelier, gold-leaf fret work and two-columned side promenades. The neo-classical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 building was design by Frank Grad
Grad Associates
Grad Associates formerly Grad Partnership and Frank Grad & Sons, was an architectural firm based in Newark, New Jersey. Founded in 1906 by Frank Grad , the company was later run by his sons, Bernard and Howard...

, a prominent Newark architect, whose work includes the Lefcourt Newark Building
Eleven 80
Eleven80 is a tall skyscraper in Newark, New Jersey. It was completed as an office building in 1930, has 35 floors, and was the tallest building in Newark until 1931...

 and many others downtown
Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark is Newark, New Jersey's major central business, retail, and cultural district. It is located at a bend in the Passaic River.Downtown is the site of the original Puritan settlement of Newark. The first settlers, led by Robert Treat, landed not far from the present site of the New...

.

The 3,500-seat main concert hall is named for Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

, a native Newarker, and is renowned for its acoustics.
Newark Stage is a 200 seat black box
Black box
A black box is a device, object, or system whose inner workings are unknown; only the input, transfer, and output are known characteristics.The term black box can also refer to:-In science and technology:*Black box theory, a philosophical theory...

 theater used off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 productions. The Terrace Ballroom is used for receptions. The Studio is a rehearsal space. The Dance Studio is home to one of three facilities in the state used by the school of the Garden State Ballet, founded in 1951.

History

During it early years the theater received the patronage of Mrs. Parker O. Griffith, with a foundation supported by the Griffith Piano Company.
The company also built the Griffith Building
Griffith Building
The Griffith Building is located in Newark, New Jersey. The building was built in 1927 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 24, 1984. The building is 15 story's and tall. The Griffith Piano Company erected the building as a showroom, workshop, office tower and recital...

, used as a showroom, workshop, office tower and recital auditorium. In the early 1920s, the company formed a partnership with Earl Beach, the Griffith Beach Organ Company. Beach had worked with Robert Hope-Jones
Robert Hope-Jones
Robert Hope-Jones , is considered to be the inventor of the theatre organ in the early 20th century...

 at his factory in Elmira, New York. The organ in Symphony Hall is one of ten theatre organs installed in northeastern New Jersey
Gateway Region
The Gateway Region is located in the northeastern part of State of New Jersey in the United States of America. The area encompasses Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties...

 between 1921 and 1925. The Harmonic Tuba has H.J. (Hope-Jones) stamped on it.

New Jersey's first television station, WATV Channel 13, debuted on May 15, 1948 from studios at 1020 Broad Street. The commercial station was owned by Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting Corporation. Bremer also owned two northern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 radio stations, WAAT (970 AM, now WNYM) and WAAT-FM (94.7 MHz., now WFME) whose studios were also in the theatre. Today Channel 13 is non-commercial WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...

.

In 1964, the floundering Mosque Theater was on the verge on bankruptcy and there was a threat of it being torn down. Sol Hurok
Sol Hurok
Sol Hurok was a world-famous 20th century American impresario.-Biography:...

, an impressario who had presented many of his artists there commented, "This would be a terrible misfortune for music. It is one of the great concert halls of the country, with marvelous acoustics and great sight lines. It must be preserved." It was purchased by the city for $340,000, becoming a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, and re-named Symphony Hall.
Among the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 companies and stars who have appeared at Symphony Hall are the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

Jerome Hines
Jerome Hines
The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...

, Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...

, Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters is an American coloratura soprano.One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York...

, Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...

, and Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...

 (who made his debut there).

Victor Borge
Victor Borge
Victor Borge ,born Børge Rosenbaum, was a Danish comedian, conductor and pianist, affectionately known as The Clown Prince of Denmark,The Unmelancholy Dane,and The Great Dane.-Early life and career:...

, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

, Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...

, Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...

, Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...

, James Cleveland
James Cleveland
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs...

, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Kirk Franklin
Kirk Franklin
Kirk Dwayne Franklin is an American Gospel music musician, choir director, and author, and is most notably known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God's Property and One Nation Crew .- Early years :...

, Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...

, Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...

, The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...

, Tony Bennet and many, many more artists have also performed.

Prior to the opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center , in downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States...

, Symphony Hall was one of the principal performance venues in the state, one of the homes of the New Jersey Symphony, the Newark Boys Choir, and the New Jersey State Opera
New Jersey State Opera
The New Jersey State Opera is an opera company based in Newark, New Jersey. It was established in 1964 as the Opera Theater of Westfield, and shortly after opening Alfredo Silipigni was hired as Artistic Director. The name was changed to the Opera Theatre of New Jersey in 1965, and in 1968 the...

. The Newark Dance Theater, African Globe Theater Works, and the New Jersey Ballet
New Jersey Ballet
The New Jersey Ballet is a ballet company based in Livingston, New Jersey in the United States, founded in 1958 by native New Jerseyan Carolyn Clark and her fellow dancer, George Tomal.- History :...

 also showed work at the Hall. While much activity has shifted to NJPAC, Symphony Hall's continues to present theater, music and dance. Community organizations have been conducting their annual programs at Newark Symphony Hall for twenty-five years and more, and continue to do so.

The area just south of Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark is Newark, New Jersey's major central business, retail, and cultural district. It is located at a bend in the Passaic River.Downtown is the site of the original Puritan settlement of Newark. The first settlers, led by Robert Treat, landed not far from the present site of the New...

 near Lincoln Park is known as The Coast
The Coast, Newark, New Jersey
The Coast or Lincoln Park is a neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, bounded by the Springfield/Belmont, South Broad Valley, South Ironbound and Downtown neighborhoods. It is bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to the west, Kinney St. to the north, the McCarter Highway to the east and South...

. Newark, and the Coast in particular, in the past has been a large producer of gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 and continues to produce well-known black artists. In 2007 announcement was made for the development Museum of African American Music
Museum of African American Music
The Museum of African American Music is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum being built in Newark, New Jersey. The museum is the center of a larger project to revitilize The Coast/Lincoln Park district in Newark. The museum will feature various genres of African-American music, including gospel, blues,...

, a Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 affiliate. The museum would be a collection of archives of "jazz, blues, spirituals, hip-hop, rock 'n'roll, gospel, house music, and rhythm and blues".
In 2010, it was announced that campaign to restore the theater was under way.
In 2010 the venue for the first time hosted events of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America.-Background:The four-day celebrations of poetry have been called “poetry heaven” by the 1995–1997 US Poet Laureate Robert Hass, “a new Woodstock” by the Christian Science Monitor, and “Wordstock” by The...

.

See also

  • The Coast
    The Coast, Newark, New Jersey
    The Coast or Lincoln Park is a neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, bounded by the Springfield/Belmont, South Broad Valley, South Ironbound and Downtown neighborhoods. It is bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to the west, Kinney St. to the north, the McCarter Highway to the east and South...

  • Museum of African American Music
    Museum of African American Music
    The Museum of African American Music is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum being built in Newark, New Jersey. The museum is the center of a larger project to revitilize The Coast/Lincoln Park district in Newark. The museum will feature various genres of African-American music, including gospel, blues,...

  • Stanley Theater (Newark, New Jersey)
    Stanley Theater (Newark, New Jersey)
    The Stanley Theater is located in Newark, New Jersey. The building was built in 1927 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1986....

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, New Jersey

External links

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