Manhattan: Central Park - [Philharmonic in Central Park] Image ID: 718405F

This year, the New York Philharmonic is celebrating 50 years of free concerts in New York City’s parks. Since 1965, over 14 million people have enjoyed this honored city tradition. To celebrate the parks, and the audiences that have attended the concerts for the past 50 years, the New York Philharmonic Archives has created Crowdsourcing Memories: 50 Years of the Philharmonic in New York City’s Parks. 

The New York Public Library and the New York Philharmonic are partnering to gather New Yorkers' favorite recollections for this important collection. We invite you to share photos, videos, and personal recollections of park concerts so they can be preserved in the Philharmonic’s Archives for future generations.  

The following libraries—each one close to Parks Concert history—are helping to build this collection beginning the week of May 4:

• St. Agnes Library and Yorkville Library (near Central Park in Manhattan where Parks Concerts were held from 1965 - 2015)
• Woodlawn Heights Library (near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx where Parks Concerts were held from 1971 - 2015)
• St. George Library Center (near Snug Harbor in Staten Island where Parks Concerts were held from 1979 - 2007)

Do you remember hearing your favorite piece of music? Who did you go with? Do you remember the fireworks? Did you picnic?  Here are just a few memories that people have submitted already:

• In the summer of 1965, Rick Rand was celebrating his graduation from Cooper Union, bought himself a Triumph sports car, and saw Benny Goodman perform in the inaugural season of the Concerts in the Parks.
• In 1974, Steven Blumrosen witnessed Leonard Bernstein perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 25 while conducting the Orchestra with his head.
• After his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2003, James Ehnes took a bow after his Tchaikovsky solo and then stunned his girlfriend and 45,000 audience members when he asked her to marry him.

Selected memories will be posted on the Philharmonic’s memory website, and you can submit your memories online. 

Additionally, in collaboration with the New York Public Library Oral History Project, the Archives is hosting a memory circle on Tuesday May 5, 2015 at St. Agnes Library. This recorded event will be the perfect time to discuss your favorite parks memories with a representative from the Archives and your fellow New Yorkers.

This event is also part of our programming for the NYPL Community Oral History Project. For more information, please visit oralhistory.nypl.org