PEOPLES’ SYMPHONY RETURNS TO WASHINGTON IRVING
By James Barron
Oct. 29, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET
You’re reading the New York Today newsletter. Local reporting on the stories that define the city, plus Metropolitan Diary.
Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out how the ocean of cash from cannabis retailers moves through the city — and into the financial system. We’ll also get details on a concert group that had been shut out from a favorite venue, according to the Manhattan borough president, but is about to return.
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In a city with an affordability crisis, the People’s Symphony Concerts are known for bargain-priced tickets, as little as $10 a concert. There is no People’s Symphony — the organization has long booked soloists and small- to medium-size ensembles, including the violinists Isaac Stern in 1943 and Itzhak Perlman in 1967; the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1981; and the pianist Yefim Bronfman in 2010.
For years the group’s home was the auditorium at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan. But a couple of years ago, the school said it could no longer accommodate the concerts. People’s Symphony found other venues last season.
The group’s co-manager, Frank Salomon, missed Washington Irving — “it has one of the best halls acoustically,” he said. So he called Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president. Her father had done his parents’ tax returns and his sister had babysat for her, he said, adding that she, in turn, had called a couple of her successors, first Mark Levine, now the city comptroller, and Levine’s successor, Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
Hoylman-Sigal said that he, in turn, had called the schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels. “I said, ‘Can’t we work this out?’ And he said, ‘We must,’” Holyman-Sigal said, and four concerts were scheduled at Washington Irving for this season, starting with a performance on Saturday by the Dover Quartet. Fifteen other concerts are on the People’s Symphony calendar for the season, including six at Town Hall.
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