1921. That December, German composer Richard Strauss gave three concerts, an event the Town Hall Foundation described as giving "the hall christening as an ideal space for musical performances". Cellist Pablo Casals made his debut in January 1923, followed the next month by a dance recital by Ruth St. Denis. Singer and actor Paul Robeson first performed Black spiritual songs at the Town Hall in 1927, guitarist Andrés Segovia first gave a recital in 1929, and Richard Tauber made his American premiere there in 1931. In its first decade, the Town Hall's other events included Edna St. Vincent Millay's public poetry reading debut in 1928 and a screening of amateur films in 1929. Town Hall sponsored the first season of the Town Hall Endowment Series in 1930. The series featured such figures as Mischa Elman, Margaret Matzenauer, John McCormack, Rosa Ponselle, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, who all appeared in the 1931–1932 season, as well as Feodor Chaliapin for the 1932–1933 season. The series originally had five performances per season, but this was changed in 1933 to eight performances. Outside of the Endowment Series, the Colonial Dames of America and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America presented a play in 1932, which depicted the inauguration of George Washington as U.S. president. Pianist Ruth Slenczynska made her debut at the Town Hall in 1933, aged eight. Antonia Brico's all-woman orchestra debuted at the Town Hall in early 1935, and contralto Marian Anderson made her Town Hall debut that December after facing discrimination against African-Americans at other venues. Alice Tully sang at Town Hall in 1936, and young violinist Isaac Stern debuted at Town Hall the next year. Other performers of the decade included Lily Pons in 1938 and the Von Trapp family the same year. 1940s to 1970s The Kolisch Quartet gave the world premiere performance of Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 6 at Town Hall in 1941. Especially popular at Town Hall were performances of jazz music. Guitarist Eddie Condon began holding a series of jazz concerts at Town Hall in February 1942, and he began hosting a biweekly series of jazz concerts that November. By 1944, the performances were sold out, and NBC Blue broadcast the concerts under the Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts radio program from 1944 to 1945. One such concert by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Al Haig, Curley Russell, Max Roach, and Sid Catlett