Starring Your Recorder
Welcome to the free educational video series, Starring Your Recorder!
The recorder has been an important instrument worldwide for hundreds of years. It has often been played along with other beautiful instruments that are still played today.
With these six videos, students can experience playing easy tunes on recorder accompanied by a Renaissance band.
View the resources for parents & teachers
Free for Educators, Students, Families
For use in classrooms and at home
Starring Your Recorder Videos
Each video is approximately 12 minutes and comprises:
- Introduction (identical for all 6 videos; ends at minute 1:30)
- Instruction for the tune, with music notation
- Renaissance band accompanying students on the tune, showing notation, led by instructors
- Spotlight on one of the performers and instruments
- Band accompanying the tune again, without notation, Starring Your Recorder.
View the resources for parents & teachers
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Donate to an ensemble fiscally sponsored by GEMS
Thank you for your support of early music!
Please click the relevant link below to donate to an ensemble fiscally sponsored by GEMS.
Donate to Diderot String Quartet
Donate to New York Baroque Incorporated
Thanks again for your support.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email Director of Marketing, Naomi Morse.
Gems Live Demo
Season Preview 2022–2023 Submission
Thank you for your interest in our Season Preview newsletters.
The deadline for submission is Tuesday, August 2 at 9 AM. Because of summer schedules, we cannot accept any late entries.
Click here to submit your season listing
If you have any comments or questions, please email Director of Marketing, Naomi Morse.
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GEMS 10th Anniversary
CELEBRATE!
We’re pleased and proud to be celebrating our 10th Anniversary supporting and promoting early music in New York. It’s been a remarkable decade!
Founded in 2007, GEMS is deemed "essential" by The New York Times senior critic Anthony Tommasini. Alex Ross of The New Yorker wrote: "In recent years, Renaissance and Baroque performance in the city has gained momentum, not least through the vigorous advocacy of a group called Gotham Early Music.”
Since our founding GEMS has produced over 350 NYC early music concerts, provided services to over 250 NYC cultural organizations and artists, booked 179 paid nationwide engagements at prestigious venues for NYC musical ensembles, provided free tickets to 8,300 concert-goers, exhibited at 19 national conferences on behalf of NYC ensembles, and made numerous appearances on radio and in print. We have provided engagements for over 200 professional musicians, and served tens of thousands of audience members.
We invite you to celebrate with us by attending one of our special anniversary events listed below.
Our fall anniversary events are in collaboration with the Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York Baroque Incorporated.
GEMS's wide variety of activity is made possible with support from The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation; the Howard Gilman Foundation; the efforts of our Board of Directors, staff, and volunteers; and by ten years of generous donations from individuals.
In connection with the introduction of products based on their original 18th-century botanical formulations, the American personal care products company Caswell-Massey, founded in 1752, is partnering with GEMS to help us promote our 10th Anniversary. We share a common endeavor of bringing the best of 18th-century artistic expressions to modern audiences! We welcome their corporate sponsorship!
American Friends of Les Arts Florissants
We welcome your support of the American Friends of Les Arts Florissants
The American Friends of Les Arts Florissants, a 501(c)3 charitable corporation, was established in 2012 to strengthen the ties between Les Arts Florissants and American audiences, musicians and singers.
By raising funds in the United States, American Friends supports Les Arts Florissants’ international and U.S. tours, concerts, recitals, and events such as the Dans les Jardins de William Christie Festival held annually in the Vendée region of France. AFLAF’s support also helps to provide training and education through the annual Jardin des Voix program for young singers and to preserve and disseminate European music of the 17th and 18th century.
The France-based, internationally acclaimed Baroque vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants was founded in 1979 by Franco-American conductor William Christie.
Under Christie’s extraordinary leadership and unparalleled artistic vision, Les Arts Florissants has played a pioneering role in rediscovering and reenergizing France's Baroque repertoire, developing new French and American talent, and bringing exciting and fresh musical performances to a wide range of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
American Friends of Les Arts Florissants — Board of Directors
Françoise Girard, Chair
Susan L. Baker, Treasurer
Sydney Houghton Weinberg, Secretary
Nizam Kettaneh
Paul LeClerc
Helen Little
Charles Price
Bernard Selz
Noreen Buckfire, Chair, The Maestro's Circle
Thank You for Your Order
Thank you for your order with Gotham Early Music Scene. You will receive a confirmation at the email address you provided during the checkout process.
September 17, 2015 Opera Feroce - Treble in Paradise
Beth Anne Hatton, sopranoHayden DeWitt, mezzo soprano
Alan Dornak, countertenor
Joseph Trent, traverso
Mark Ettinger, viola da gamba
Kelly Savage, harpsichord
The gods threaten, lovers lament and Elysium beckons in a kaleidoscopic program of divine selections for treble voices. Culled from operas, operettas, and cantatas, two of Opera Feroce’s favorite composers are featured: the restless and endlessly inventive Alessandro Stradella, and Nicola Porpora, voice teacher to the stars.
Newsletter Info
Edited by Naomi Morse, Notes on the Scene was selected as one of nine "SuperStar" e-newsletters (from among thousands, apparently) by Vertical Response, the national emailing service firm, based on its quality of content and design. We are featured in some of VR's advertising materials. Since our mailing list is "opt-in," it means that each person has, in some way, indicated an interest in early music performance, and is therefore more likely to open the message. Vertical Response is a well-respected commercial email service that only accepts opt-in lists such as ours, and has registered with all the major ISP mail services, ensuring that our messages are not categorically deleted as spam.
Blue Heron Choir
Tenth Birthday Concert:
Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks
DATE & TIME:
Sunday, October 18, 2009
4 pm
PLACE:
St. Ignatius of Antioch
87th Street & West End Ave
Manhattan
TICKETS:
$50 ~ Section A reserved seating
$30 ~ Section B
More info & tickets
Map with nearby restaurants
Blue Heron Choir
Scott Metcalfe, director
Glorious sacred music from the golden age of English cathedral music by Hugh Aston, Nicholas Ludford, and Robert Fayrfax, and secular songs from the Tudor court, presented by Boston’s renowned professional vocal ensemble, Blue Heron, directed by Scott Metcalfe. This will be the first appearance of Blue Heron at full-choral strength in New York City. Blue Heron will repeat a program presented in Cambridge on October 16 as the opening concert of the 2009-10 Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series.
The Peterhouse partbooks, copied for the new cathedral foundation of Christ Church, Canterbury c. 1540-41, are “by far the largest, best preserved and most representative collection of church music to survive from a particularly unstable and controversial period in English religious history” (in the words of Nick Sandon, the world’s leading authority on the partbooks). It is a large collection of music in five parts by the greatest composers working in England c. 1510-1540, and since the tenor book went missing years (probably centuries) ago, the 50 or so pieces that are uniquely preserved there have been inaccessible to performers until Nick Sandon began publishing his perfectly idiomatic and utterly convincing reconstructions, beginning around 1990.
Trinity Church Seating
St. Paul's Chapel Seating Chart
Sinfonia New York Video
The Gran Chacona (after Aranes), as performed by members of SINFONIA NEW YORK, New York's newest period instrument orchestra, and by dancers Patricia Beaman and Carlos Fittante. Arrangement by Grant Herreid of Ex Umbris and choreography by Patricia Beaman and Carlos Fittante.
This was the grand finale in a concert presented free to the public on May 26, 2009, at the New York Ethical Cultural Society by Gotham Early Music Scene. Click here for The NY Times highly favorable review of the concert.
Volunteer
One part of the mission that GEMS serves—freeing artists to concentrate on their music rather than on the logistics of presenting the music—is fulfilled with the support of people like you, early music enthusiasts and others, who care about the musical scene enough to volunteer in one capacity or another.
Sometimes that means coming into the office to help fulfill tickets or answer the phones. Often it entails volunteering as an usher or box office staff to help put on the concerts we support. Your commitment is as extensive or focused as your personal schedule allows.
Complimentary Tickets: Those who volunteer to assist at our concerts are entitled to a complimentary seat for that evening—plus the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped musicians focus on the art of playing rather than the business of performing. You will receive careful instruction in what is expected of you, and you’ll join a team of friendly, interesting people committed to the task at hand—helping put on a successful early music concert for a dedicated audience.
To volunteer or to inquire about volunteering, please email Director of Concert Services Robby Meese, or fill out the form below.
A Sampling of Email Received by GEMS from Some of Our Volunteers:
Hello,
I LOVE early music, and unfortunately can't afford these concerts. I've done event work, ushering, blogging, PR, etc. Is there any way you could use some of my skills as an exchange for access to a show?
Thank you,
AV
________________________
Hello,
I am a professional photographer mainly based here in NYC. I have always had a love for classical music. In college I had my own classical music radio show. Since then I also have a had particular love for early music, having been introduced to it by several friends who were studying it at the time . I remember helping one of them build her own Krumhorn and was inspired to learn to play the Viola da Gamba on her borrowed instrument. Unfortunately that was only possible for about one year. But I still remember what a great feeling it was holding that vibrating instrument so close to my body and eliciting sounds from it. This is to say that I have a deep love for early music.
So, my offer is to be there on a volunteer basis when you have a concert and take professional pictures for your own publicity, web site, album art, etc.
MS
________________________
Hi, Paul,
Very enjoyable... not quite HEAVEN, but really wonderful!! This one was truly enhanced by impromptu intros by the performers about the instruments and pieces….
Thanks again for the oppty to get musical:)
LH
________________________
Hello, Paul,
Our cup runneth over with abundant beautiful music and the wonderful people of GEMSNY, which I am so proud to be a part of.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
DC
________________________
Thank you for arranging such a delightful afternoon gathering. It really was great fun --interesting people and dancing, and great food! What a perfect way to spend a summer weekend afternoon. Thanks again for all of your efforts in putting it together, and hosting all of us! And volunteering for GEMS concerts has been lots of fun, too.
EF
Welcome
WELCOME
... to your gateway to New York's vibrant early music scene!
Click here to join our mailing list to receive our semi-monthly "Notes on the Scene" newsletter covering news and upcoming events.
FEATURED EVENTS
of Unusual Interest or Exceptional Quality
The Paul Creston Award Celebration
St. Malachy’s – The Actors’ Chapel will host the 2024 Paul Creston Award...
Browse the full events calendar
Midtown Concerts
Thursdays at 1:15pm; September–June
Watch Concerts Live and On-Demand Here
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April 30 ~ Geneviève Soly (Special Tuesday performance!)
Harpsichord Recital. This performance will not be live streamed; we apologize for any inconvenience! Geneviève Soly ~ harpsichord A ... -
May 2 ~ Le tre grazie a venere
Musica Secreta. Watch online here or on YouTube View the program Madeline Apple Healey ~ soprano Margaret Carpe... -
May 9 ~ Sarah Pillow, Christopher Preston Thompson & John Mark Rozendaal
Medieval Voices: Music and Poetry of the 14th and 15th centuries. Watch online here or on YouTube Sarah Pillow ~ voi... -
May 16 ~ Opera Essentia
Excerpts of "From Hell to Antigone" ~ A Distillation of Handel's Admeto. Watch online here or on YouTube Jeffrey Mandelbaum ~ co... -
May 23 ~ Caroline Nicolas & Friends
Gamba Rivalry. Watch online here or on YouTube Caroline Nicolas ~ viola da gambaKevin Payne ~ theorboElliott Figg ~ harpsichord ...
Browse the full Midtown calendar
NEWS
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Artist Spotlight ~ harpsichordist Geneviève Soly
April 18, 2024 Geneviève Soly An interview between John Thiessen and harpsichordist Geneviève Soly JOHN: Later this month, virtuoso Quebecoise organist and harpsichordist Geneviève Soly will come to New York for performances at St. Malachy’s ...Artist Spotlight ~ The Music of "Upon Reflection"
April 16, 2024 Upon Reflection An interview of John Thiessen with Frances White, Lisa Terry, and Larry Lipnik JOHN: In late February, I spoke with Wendy Steiner, the co-creator and director of Upon Reflection: An Opera in Ten Images which will be ...Artist Spotlight ~ East of the River
April 4, 2024 East of the River An interview of John Thiessen with Nina Stern and Daphna Mor JOHN: When I first listened to pre-mastered tracks from East of the River’s December 2021 recording Ija Mia (My Daughter), I was astonished by the beaut...Notes on the Scene ~ Latest Edition
Notes on the Scene is published 2–3 times per month, on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Thursdays. We include concert listings, news, video links, artist showcases and more from New York City's early music scene. Enjoy our latest newsetter, published on Apr...