Naumburg was born in Treuchtlingen, Bavaria, in 1835, and emigrated with his parents to the United States at age 15 to escape the growing anti-Semitism of his native land.
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Richard Arnold, Leopold Damrosch, Marcella Sembrich, Theodore Thomas, and others performed weekly in the Naumburg family parlor during the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, entertaining such Gilded Age critics and artists as Henry Theophilus Finck and Albert Henry Krehbiel.
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The concert closed with a new march—"On the Mall"—by Edwin Franko Goldman, dedicated to 88-year-old Elkan Naumburg, who was in attendance.
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From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, he used his wealth to promote public interest in symphonic and "semi-classical" music by founding the Oratorio Society of New York and funding construction of the Naumburg Bandshell, which honors his name, on the Concert Ground of the Central Park Mall.
Goldman composed "On the Mall" (possibly as early as 1922 but published the march) in 1923 to honor Elkan Naumburg, who had funded the related construction in that year as "On the Mall" premiered there on September 29 with Franz Kaltenborn as conductor and Naumburg in attendance.
Elkan Naumburg (1835-1924), German-American banker, philanthropist and musicologist
It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg.
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