With a donation of $10 million, Zankel helped fund the recital space at Carnegie Hall that now bears his name. The 600-seat Zankel Hall fulfilled Andrew Carnegie's original idea for the venue, which was to create three performance spaces ranging from the grand 2,804-seat Isaac Stern Auditorium to the 268-seat Weill Recital Hall.

Sanford Weill, chair of Carnegie Hall's board of trustees, said, "Arthur did a lot of things that helped the world become a better place. And he was a really good friend to a lot of people."