Music festivals in the 19th century were grand and well attended. Tomlinson Hall, a large civic building, was built in the 1870s and 1880s right next to the City Market near Monument Circle. The building was over 20,000 square feet and designed to seat 4,200 guests and 650 people on stage. For context, the Murat Theatre in the Old National Center can seat just over 2,600. Hilbert Circle Theatre, a few streets away from where Tomlinson Hall stood, can only hold 1,660.
The Indianapolis May Music Festivals were just one of the festivals held there. At least nine were held between 1889 and 1897. Conductor Carl Barus put on the festival. He first came to Indianapolis in 1882 to work with the Maennerchor. Barus conducted the opening performance at Tomlinson Hall in 1886 and became involved in planning the May Music Festival. The festival wasn’t just small bands and singers. An entire festival orchestra, chorus, and various soloists performed pieces by classical and contemporary composers. It was not necessarily an orchestra from Indiana. Orchestras came from all over the country to perform works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and other composers still listened to today.
The festival featured many notable singers of the era. Clementine De Vere performed as a soloist in 1890. It was her first time performing in Indianapolis, though she had done stints in New York and Europe well before this festival. The program even compared her to Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” who was one of the most highly renowned singers of the 19th century. Italo Campanini, one of the most successful operatic tenors of the late 19th century, performed in the festival in 1892. The program said that “his successful career is too well known to be republished here…Campanini is one of the greatest singers of this age.” Each festival had around ten soloists, each with at least a local following. Having an event this large was important to the culture of the city. The 1890 pamphlet said that “Indianapolis needs the Music Festival for the same reason that the West needs the World’s Fair. A great undertaking is a stimulus to any population.”
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