Press Kit

Summer 1 1928	The first foundations of the Buckingham Hotel are laid by the Uris brothers at a prime Manhattan corner location – 101 West 57th Street across from Carnegie Hall, just 1 block from Fifth Avenue right in the middle of New York`s Arts District.
1929	The Buckingham Hotel opens its doors to the public.
1929 – 1941	Ignacy Jan Paderewski, composer, the world’s greatest pianist during his lifetime, international humanitarian and first Prime Minister of a free Poland following World War I, makes the Buckingham Hotel his official home while seeking from World War II in Europe. After growing up poverty-stricken in Poland and later being banished with his family to Siberia, Paderewski finds himself, at age seventeen, touring Russia in the dead of winter performing his first concert tour. Ultimately, he performs concerts in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London where he catches the attention of the Steinways. He is brought to New York City in 1891, where his first United States performance is at the brand new Carnegie Hall. His relationship with Steinway and Carnegie Hall make the Buckingham Hotel the perfect choice for Paderewski’s visits.
1932	Albertina Rasch, dancer and international choreographer for both Broadway shows and Hollywood films, and her husband Dmitri Tiomkin, Academy Award-winning composer, choose the Buckingham Hotel as their residence while working throughout the country and the world.
1939 – 1940	Giuseppe De Luca seeks the residential comfort and convenience of the Buckingham Hotel during his tenure at the Metropolitan Opera. He sings at the Met from 1915 to 1935 and again in the 1939-40 season.
1939 – 1969	Giovanni Martinelli, one of the world’s great tenors, chooses the Buckingham Hotel during his thirty-season residency at the Met. After he debuts in 1913, Martinelli played a magnificent total of 663 performances at the Met. He occupied the Hotel’s penthouse, with views of Central Park.
1941	Upon Paderewski’s death in 1941, he lay in state at the Buckingham and mourners from around the world paid their respects to him there, with lines of people stretching East across 57^th Street. President Roosevelt orders his burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The furnishings from his Buckingham Hotel suite, including his Steinway practice piano and personal items, are donated and moved to the Polish Museum of America in Chicago where the Museum today recreates his living room, bedroom, and dining area -- complete with piano, Buckingham Hotel branded china, silverware and table linens.
1947	Giuseppe De Luca’s farewell concert at the Met at the age of 71.
1950 – 1965	Paul Schöffler, bass-baritone opera singer, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in January 1950, as Jokanaan in Salome. He continues to sing there until 1965 and makes the Buckingham Hotel his home while he performs in New York.
1951	Victoria de los Angeles, Soprano, makes her debuts as Marguerite in Gounod`s Faust at the Metropolitan Opera. During her Met days she is in residence at the Buckingham Hotel.
1955 – 1973	Renata Tebaldi, one of the world’s great Dramatic Sopranos, makes her Metropolitan debut on January 31, 1955. Shortly after, she begins appearing regularly at the Met and takes up residence at the Buckingham Hotel.
1965	Bobby Van, Broadway choreographer and dancer star, resides at the Buckingham Hotel.
1980s	Gato Barbieri, legendary jazz sax player, calls the Buckingham Hotel home when he is not on tour.
1991	A plaque commemorating the 100^th anniversary of Paderewski’s U.S. debut--at Carnegie Hall, in its own debut year, is unveiled at the Buckingham Hotel.
June 2002	The Buckingham Hotel unveils its magnificent stained glass window entitled ‘Dancing King’ -- a large, commissioned, permanent installation of stained glass by artist Jose Ortega, which not only celebrates the heritage of the Hotel, but is also an homage to the West 57^th Street tradition of art glass and performing artists themselves. The lobby walls showcase a unique, musically-themed artwork entitled ‘Bounce Fugue,’ crafted from musical instruments and commissioned from a team at the New York Studio School under the direction of artist Graham Nickson.
2002	The only opera star to transform her repertoire from Soprano to Mezzo, Regina Resnik resides at the Buckingham Hotel while she teaches and produces educational programs in the City. David Daniels, Countertenor opera singer, scores stunning reviews season when he performs at the Metropolitan Opera while staying at the Buckingham.
November 2002	The Buckingham Hotel’s unique ‘Expression of Music through Art’ program, an annual juried art competition providing $17,000 of prize money in purchase awards, is officially announced. Judges for the first Buckingham Prize include: Graham Nickson, Dean of the New York Studio School, Ira Goldberg, Director of the Art Students League, and legendary opera star Regina Resnik. The competition is open to art students and faculty members at seven major art schools in New York and offers a top prize of $10,000. The final winner will be announced in the Fall of 2003. Not only is the Buckingham a home for artists, it has become a true patron of the arts.
DDecember 2 2002	Regina Resnik, wife of the late world-renowned School of Paris artist Arbit Blatas generously loans two stunning oil portraits from his Carnegie Hall series, which are hung in the Buckingham Hotel lobby. They are of cellist Mstislav Rastropovich and pianist Artur Rubenstein.
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S Summer 2 2003	The Buckingham Hotel celebrates its Diamond Anniversary.
2003	2003 sees a number of prominent musical performers visiting the Buckingham, including Chilean Mezzo Soprano sensation Angela Marambio who checks in the day her operatic career burst powerfully onto the New York stage in La Bohéme and Carmen at the City Opera just weeks after her discovery in Latin America; Chinese piano prodigy Lang Lang, on his way to Lincoln Center`s Mostly Mozart Festival; actor Robert Vaughn while performing in Manhattan; Steinway artist Hersh Felder; the great American Baritone Sherrill Milnes; the Jerusalem Symphony; opera and symphony conductors working at Carnegie Hall and the Met, quartets, soloists and more. The legacy of all the talented people whose love of the arts have converged at the Buckingham Hotel continues to make it the choice of individuals who appreciate an oasis of quietude in the artistic center of New York.

1939 – 1969

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S Summer 2 2003