He walked to a childhood upright piano at the center of Carnegie Hall’s stage and sat down. Not the grand instrument you’d expect. His. The one he grew up playing. And before a note was struck, I understood that what was coming wasn’t a concert. It was a conversation with his mother.
After having visited New York City a couple times — each one filled with museums, cafes, Broadway shows — it was truly exciting to have an opportunity to go back. Since retiring, going back is the only way I leave where I’ve been. I don’t travel anymore to “see”, I go to “experience” and I look for the experiences to fill my calendar. What is there in NYC I haven’t experienced? What is there I have heard about, read about, or even studied about that I have yet to experience? I sat in a few coffee shops for a couple weeks jotting down some ideas and checking websites to make this trip an experienced full trip as I could.
The trip was already scheduled in my mind to occur before the end of May so that I could catch the Raphael:Sublime Poetry international loan exhibit at the MET, which in and of itself is a pretty big deal being the first comprehensive exhibition of its kind dedicated to the Renaissance master in the United States. What else could rise to such an experience for me? As I sat one morning at a local coffee shop and quietly sipping I found myself paying just a bit more attention to the playlist when a thought hit me as if had been trying to break through for some time — Carnegie Hall. Yes, that venue in NYC which opened in 1891 with —Tchaikovsky conducting at its podium. Now, I was back on the hunt to make this as unique experience that I could that could be labeled, my experience.
A quick search returned to me a joy Google could never appreciate… Harry Connick, Jr. would be there on the last night I’d be in NYC with my daughter!
Quickly I pressed that “Buy Tickets” button to determine if this was going to happen and there before me, were very few tickets, and only 2 options for two tickets. But my heart did not sink, after all, could there really be such a thing as a bad seat in Carnegie Hall and Harry Connick Jr. performing? That’s a rhetorical question by the way…
As we ascended to our seats to experience Harry Connick, Jr., we were both very excited for this experience. And I mean ascend as to the last row at the very top. We climbed flight after flight of stairs and I could only speculate what musical notes from the past were stuck up there in those highest corners of this historical hall. And then… we sat down.
As we reviewed the playbill it became clearer to us that this performance was going to be like none other. Titled Babe: Elaboratio, honoring his late mother, Anita-Francis Livingston Connick. What a surprise and a joy it turned out to be! This was Harry’s personal tribute to his mother, at his first performance ever at Carnegie Hall.
From the opening his stories of his mother who passed when he was 13 set a tone for this evening of tribute to her. And even more so was this night, May 22, 2026 would have been his mother’s 100th birthday and here Harry is on the stage that she had always told him he would perform on one day. He opened the evening on his childhood upright piano performing “Oh When the Saints”. He shared letters and pages from a journal his mother had kept and slowly he drew everyone in that hall closer to him and … his mother.
From singing and performing some of her favorite songs, to performing with an orchestra from Australia the debut premiere of a deeply personal orchestral tribute to his late mother that he had just written. Home movies were presented in a video background of family life as he guided us along the history of his family. The struggles he dealt with as a young boy not fully understanding the prognosis for a mother with ovarian cancer. He even shared that he once called Carnegie Hall to see if they would let him play for his mother because that was here dream for him. Of course, the only phone number he knew to call was the box office and that ended as we could easily imagine.
After the orchestral piece Harry returned to the stage in the traditional encore fashion. But his encore was yet another example of his tribute being to his mother and family. Giving thanks for his wife and daughters as they have had their own health struggles, but his mother’s legacy and his faith seem to be the very essence of his humility.
What a once in a lifetime experience our visit to Carnegie Hall manifested. It also allowed me to know slightly on a more personal level a man who I will see perform again in July. But on a different stage, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and a more traditional performance of his. Tickets are still available here.
But for this night, this once in a lifetime performance ended as only Harry would end the evening with this type of tribute. He sat on the piano bench and moved it slightly closer to the piano and introduced his encore before singing a lullaby that his mother used to sing to him. This experience will root deeply in my thoughts.
The Curious Table 