1910s and 1920s

In the 1910s and 1920s, musical life in New Brunswick continued to flourish. The city’s new theaters and older venues provided entertainment ranging from Old Folks’ concerts and pianola recitals at Brunswick Hall to John Philip Sousa and his band at Reade’s State Theatre. In the fall of 1917, Dr. Charles Henry Hart of Hart Brothers’ Pianos secured artists from New York’s Metropolitan Opera for an ambitious series of concerts. For all performances in the “Star Course” series, Hart equipped artists exclusively with Mehlin-brand pianos from his family’s warerooms. With the establishment of music departments at Rutgers, faculty members like J. Earle Newton of the New Jersey College for Women increasingly collaborated with city residents, while Rutgers buildings like the Kirkpatrick Chapel and the Ballantine Gymnasium became venues for performances.