The Proms organ. This coincided with the adoption of this lower pitch by other leading orchestras and concert series. Although the concerts gained a popular following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902, and the banker Edgar Speyer took over the expense of funding them. Wood received a knighthood in 1911. In 1914 anti-German feeling led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts. Although Newman remained involved in artistic planning, it was Wood's name which became most closely associated with the Proms. As conductor from the first concert (which opened with Wagner's "Rienzi"
Music of the Americas (concert series) the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Nelson Freire, Inti-Illimani, and Chango Spasiuk, as well as music not often presented elsewhere in the area. The Music of the Americas program has been under the direction of Sebastián Zubieta since 2005. The concert series is free and takes place at Americas Society’s headquarters on the upper east side of New York City at 680 Park Avenue. The building, which has served as Americas Society’s headquarters since David Rockefeller created the organization, is a New York City landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and was previously the home of Percy Rivington