- Jan 10 Eduard van Beinum debuts as conductor of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Carnegie Hall's First Jazz Concert
Jan 16 First jazz concert held at Carnegie Hall, performed by Benny Goodman and his band
"Our Town"
Feb 4 "Our Town" a play by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway, NYC (later awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
Operette
Mar 16 Noël Coward's musical "Operette" premieres in London
Hanson's 3rd Symphony
Mar 26 NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony
Piston's 1st Symphony
Apr 8 Walter Piston's 1st Symphony in E, premieres in Boston, by the Boston Symphony, conducted by the composer
A-Tisket, A-Tasket
May 2 American singer Ella Fitzgerald records "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" with Chick Webb and His Orchestra
Joan of Arc at the Stake
May 12 Arthur Honegger and Paul Claudel's oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" (Joan of Arc at the Stake) premieres in Basel, Switzerland
Hooray for What!
May 21 Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's anti-war musical "Hooray for What!", starring Ed Wynn and directed by Vincente Minnelli, closes at the Winter Garden Theatre, NYC, after 200 performances
Mathis der Maler
May 28 Paul Hindemith's opera "Mathis der Maler" premieres in Zurich
- May 30 Walter Piston's dance work, The Incredible Flutist, written for the Boston Pops Orchestra, which premieres it, Arthur Fiedler conducting
- Jun 25 "A Tisket A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb hits #1
Room Service
Jul 16 John Murray and Allen Boretz's stage comedy "Room Service", starring Sam Levene, Eddie Albert, and Phillip Loeb, closes at the Cort Theatre, NYC, after 500 performances
- Jul 21 Paul Hindemith and Leonide Massine's ballet Nobilissima Visione premieres in London
Music History
Sep 15 Jazz piano prodigy Margaret Johnson (20) makes her only recording, four sides with Billie Holiday in NYC: Johnson dies of tuberculosis less than a year later
- Sep 20 Emlyn Williams' semi-autobiographical comedic play "Corn is Green," premieres in London; runs for 600 performances
Music History
Oct 10 Premiere performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st String Quartet
- Oct 15 Robert E Sherwood's stage drama "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", starring Raymond Massey, opens at the Plymouth Theatre, NYC; runs for 472 performances
Music History
Oct 16 Aaron Copland's & Eugene Loring's ballet "Billy the Kid" premieres in Chicago
- Oct 25 American Archbishop of Dubuque (Iowa), Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".
Frank Sinatra Arrested
Nov 27 Bergen County (New Jersey) sheriff's department arrests American singer Frank Sinatra (23) on charge of "seduction", later withdrawn and amended to adultery, and shortly thereafter case dismissed
- Nov 28 Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 premieres in Moscow, USSR