The year 1891 was a successful one for MacDowell, for it saw two performances of a large orchestral work, First Suite, in A minor, he had just completed; the production of his symphonic Fragments (Op. 30); and his first pianoforte recital in America.

MacDowell’s prestige continued to grow steadily.  He was invariably received with enthusiasm on the numerous occasions of his public appearances as a pianist, while each new composition he issued was remarkably well received by the public and the newspaper musical critics.  The Boston Symphony Orchestra was especially encouraging to him, placing both his "Indian” Suite, Op. 48, and his First Concerto, in A minor, Op. 15, on the programme of one of its New York concerts.  Teresa Carreno, the famous pianist from whom he had had a few lessons when a boy, played some of his music at most of her recitals.  She was also instrumental, with the ready help of Sir (then Mr.) Henry J. Wood, in making MacDowell’s D minor concerto known in England.  The popular London Queen’s Hall conductor was impressed with the work, and has ever since recommended it to budding young pianists as a concerto worth studying.

The occasion of MacDowell’s performance of his D minor concerto with the Philharmonic Society of New York on December 14th, 1894, is worthy of note.  He then achieved one of the most conspicuous triumphs of his career.  His playing was described by Henry T. Finck, the distinguished American musical critic, as being of “that splendid kind of virtuosity which makes one forget the technique.”  MacDowell received a tremendous ovation such as was accorded only to a popular prima donna at the opera, or to a famous virtuoso of international reputation.  The musical critics generally agreed that the fine feeling and the power of the concerto was as responsible for his remarkable success before the critical Philharmonic audience as his playing of it.  The conductor was Anton Seidl.

A few months after the above event, MacDowell created a deep impression in the same city by his playing of his Sonata Tragica, Op. 45, and some smaller pieces.

In 1896 he bought some land near Peterboro, in the south of the state of New Hampshire.  In addition to a music room connected by a passage with the house, he built a log cabin in the woods near by, where he could compose in the solitude that was needed for the transcribing of his dreams and inspirations into permanent music form.

In the same year (1896) it was decided to found a department of music at Columbia University, New York, and MacDowell, described by the committee formed to appoint a Professor of Music as “the greatest musical genius America has produced,” was offered the distinguished, but as it proved, laborious task of organising the new department.  After some hesitation he accepted the post, as it would afford him an income free from the precariousness of private teaching.