Colonnade Exhibition Celebrates Music History in the Great Hall

The Cooper Union's Great Hall has been the site of hundreds of thrilling musical concerts in genres as diverse as New York itself: from American roots music and the blues, to avant-garde composers and proponents of free jazz, to opera in translation and visits from the New York Philharmonic, to pioneers of punk and hip-hop. As the home of the American Jazz Orchestra from 1986 to 1992, Cooper hosted established performers like Tony Bennett as well as modern jazz musicians like David Amram and Oliver Lake. There have been well-established series such as WNYC's Annual American Music Festival and the Composers' Forum, which featured contemporary works by the likes of Elliott Carter as well as tributes to American folk music, the Tin Pan Alley compositions of Harold Arlen, Astor Piazzolla's tangos, and the big band sounds of Count Basie. 

In honor of Annie Lennox: Retrospective, a free public program hosted by The Cooper Union on October 14, 2025, we highlight a few of the performers who have contributed to this dynamic history of musical artists in the Great Hall. The images in the gallery below were featured as a colonnade window exhibition on the east side of Cooper's Foundation Building.

Gardiner Foundation Great Hall Forum

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.