Oberfelder Concert Series and Family Papers

Pioneer impresario Arthur M. Oberfelder was born in Sidney, Nebraska, where he worked in the local opera house as a boy. He arrived in Denver in 1913 after having graduated from the University of Nebraska and then having served as secretary to American political icon William Jennings Bryan who ran for the American presidency three times. He wed Denver native Hazel Marx on March 31 1915 at a ceremony performed by Rabbi William Friedman of Temple Emanuel. In Denver, Oberfelder began as the manager of the Redpath Lyceum booking agency. However, before long Oberfelder organized his own concert management agency in 1917 and soon became the exclusive Denver manager of all stage presentations on tour. He bought out his rival, Robert Slack, in 1926 to form the Oberfelder-Slack Concert Series. The Oberfelder Concert Series operated every year until Oberfelder’s death in 1954. He began a series of concerts at Red Rocks known as "Concerts Under the Stars" and arranged for the Metropolitan Opera to tour the United States for the first time in 1948 and 1949. Oberfelder helped enrich Colorado’s cultural life and brought in some of the most acclaimed musicians, dancers, and actors in the world, including John Phillip Sousa, Paderewski, Jascha Heifits, Marian Anderson, Isaac Stern, Pavlova, and Margaret Fonteyn.