Migrations: The Making of America

Carnegie Hall presents Migrations: The Making of America, a citywide festival that traces the journeys of people from different origins and backgrounds who helped to shape and influence the evolution of American arts and culture. The festival features more than 100 events celebrating the many contributions—cultural, social, economic, and political—of the people who helped to build our American culture.

Kicking off on March 9 at Carnegie Hall, the festival features musical programming at the Hall and public programming, performances, exhibitions, and events at more than 75 leading cultural and academic institutions across New York City and beyond through May 2019.

Carnegie Hall will examine the musical legacies of three migrations: the crossings from Scotland and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries, the immigration of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe between 1881 and the National Origins Act of 1924, and the Great Migration—the exodus of African Americans from the South to the industrialized cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1917 into the 1970s. With performances of bluegrass, old-time, klezmer, Yiddish musical theater, blues, jazz, and more, Carnegie Hall celebrates the American musical traditions that flourished as a result of these migrations.

Beyond Carnegie Hall, public programming, performances, exhibitions, and events at festival partner organizations—leading cultural and academic institutions in New York City and beyond—will highlight other aspects of these and the many other migrations, including those from Italy, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, as well as the internal migration of Native Americans, that have contributed to American culture today.