One year later, on Christmas night, the Society began what has become an unbroken tradition of annual performances of Handel's Messiah.
Three years later, Carnegie added his support to a fund to build a hall that was suitable for choral music.
In April 1923 the Society, in conjunction with the experimental radio station, WEAF, presented the first choral concert broadcast from Carnegie Hall.
The Society has presented the U.S. premiere of Brahms' A German Requiem (1877), Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette (1882), a full-concert production of Wagner's Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera House (1886), Tchaikovsky's a cappella Legend and Pater noster (1891) and Eugene Onegin (1908), the now-standard version of The Star-Spangled Banner (1917), Bach's Mass in B Minor (1927), Dvořák's Saint Ludmila (1993), Britten's The World of the Spirit (1998), and Filas' Song of Solomon (2012).
The Society's education program offers high school students in New York City classroom instruction and free tickets to its concerts.
[1] At its May 1998 125th anniversary concert, the Society was honored by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as: "One of the most treasured institutions of our city's musical life .
In March 2003, the Society received the UNESCO Commemorative Medal and the Cocos Island World Natural Heritage Site Award for its series of benefit concerts in Costa Rica.