On January 31, 1924, Pierre Monteux conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in the New York premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The music so excited one 15-year-old listener that he decided to abandon his hobby of constructing amateur radio sets in favor of writing music. That teenager was Elliott Carter.

This season, Carter returns as the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair to the same hall where his youthful interest switched from ham radio to composition. Carnegie Hall honors the most important living American composer with performances throughout 2008–2009, including the December 11 New York premiere of his Interventions for Piano and Orchestra, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Staatskapelle Berlin, to celebrate Carter’s 100th birthday.