RONALD O. PERELMAN, billionaire business titan and a self-described “frustrated musician,” owns five drum sets and has played with the likes of Bon Jovi and the Beach Boys. Yet he is landing at Carnegie Hall not by practicing on his snare drum but by taking over as the eminent music institution’s standard-bearer.

On Thursday, Carnegie announced that he had succeeded Sanford I. Weill, who has served as chairman for nearly a quarter-century. “Carnegie Hall is probably the thing in New York that I love the most,” Mr. Perelman said. “It’s just magical.”

Mr. Perelman, 72, said that he was not much of a classical music enthusiast and would push for the hall to stage more of the pop performances it was known for decades ago.

He has developed something of a reputation for combativeness, having variously sued the investment bank Morgan Stanley, the celebrity art dealer Larry Gagosian and the father of an ex-wife over a daughter’s inheritance. But Mr. Weill called Mr. Perelman a good choice to succeed him because of his record of generosity toward Carnegie and a range of other charitable and cultural organizations, from the Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he sits on the board, to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where Mr. Weill’s wife, Joan H. Weill, served as board chairwoman for 14 years.