[1] Steinberg was a violinist in the first violin section of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, playing on their nationwide radio broadcasts in 1943 under the baton of conductor Arturo Toscanini.

"[3] As early as 1940, Benjamin Steinberg began to work with black conductors Dean Dixon and Everett Lee to establish the first fully integrated professional symphony orchestra in the U.S.[4] It would take another two decades to be achieved, however.

As the civil rights movement of the 1960s gained momentum in the US, Steinberg founded a committee to create a symphony orchestra of accomplished musicians and conductors, irrespective of race.

The debut concert of the first fully integrated orchestra in America was held at Carnegie Hall on May 6, 1965,[1][2] two months before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law.

[6] Sponsors included Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Ruby Dee, Langston Hughes, William Warfield, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, and Zero Mostel.

[5] As the orchestra developed, Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price joined the board of directors, and James DePreist became principal guest conductor.

On November 26, 1947, he conducted the premiere of Theme and Variations, choreographed by George Balanchine for prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch.

[14] Steinberg remained in that post until 1963, when he returned to the United States following a tour of the Soviet Union as conductor of the Cuban National Ballet Symphony Orchestra.

[15] Steinberg conducted many Broadway musicals, including Leonard Bernstein's production of Peter Pan (1950), starring Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff.

[17] Although he did not invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in his own behalf, Steinberg said that to provide such information about others was an infringement of his right to freedom of association and freedom of speech: Although I believe every word of the Fifth Amendment is immortal – part of the Constitution of the United States – I believe that its use by citizens has been under attack, and I believe it is my patriotic duty to resist this attack by basing my defense here on the fact that Congress has reserved to the people the right of free association and free speech, and it has specifically denied this area to Government.