Gotham Early Music Scene

Offering distinctive FREE weekly concerts from September to June each season, Midtown Concerts present local and international artists at all stages of their careers, enlarging and diversifying the early music audience, and enhancing our vibrant community. We proudly provide performance opportunities for hundreds of artists and serve many thousands of in-person and online audience members each year. Each program features performances of historically informed repertoire on period instruments and vocal styles, providing a meaningful contribution to New York’s cultural offerings.

• The series provides a great venue for high-quality performers to experiment with repertoire new to them, or to present established programs, while gaining new local and global audiences. It also provides new ensembles with an introduction to our local early music aficionados and gives touring groups a New York performance.
• Each program is prominently displayed on our website, and featured in our bi-weekly newsletter Notes on the Scene. In addition, we send press releases to over 300 media contacts, post and advertise Midtown Concerts on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
• Concerts are performed live, and simultaneously live streamed to a world-wide audience on the GEMS website and YouTube.
• For the 2026–2027, we are pleased to announce a collaboration with the Handel Hendrix House Museum in London; scroll down for a full description. We encourage ensembles to submit proposals for concerts comprising in whole or part the music of G.F. Handel.

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

Our series comprises weekly concerts of 40–45 minutes of repertoire, Thursdays beginning 1:15 PM at St. Malachy’s Church – the Actor’s Chapel, 239 West 49th Street in Manhattan. The Church is architecturally beautiful, with wonderfully live acoustics, a large, raised altar/performance space, great sightlines, and a very convenient location in the Times Square theater district of Manhattan.

Preference is given to ensembles with long-term commitments to performing together, though ad hoc groups offering an innovative or especially interesting program concept are considered. All ensembles perform solely in historical performance style, with historical temperament and pitch; period instruments only; and no crossover music with other genres.

If you have a special program that you feel is worthy of consideration (for example, a modern composer has written music for your period instrument ensemble), email us and we will tell you whether it is acceptable for the series.

AUDIO & VIDEO RECORDINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS

Each concert will be live streamed and recorded. With your permission, we will keep an edited version online for on-demand viewing and forwarding for later broadcast/webcast on classical radio stations. You will have an opportunity to view and listen to the recording and withhold any or all pieces from archived or forwarded copies.

Concert images and videos may be posted on the Midtown Concerts website and social media pages.

SELECTION COMMITTEE AND ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

Proposals for 2026–27 were reviewed in April 2026 by our Midtown Concerts selection committee.

As GEMS received many more proposals than there are concert dates, only a third of those who applied will be included for next season’s Midtown Concerts. Our selection committee chose soloists and ensembles based on overall programmatic considerations, variety of repertoire with preference given to expanding the 5th–19th century repertoire canon, artistic excellence, emerging versus established artists with frequent recent appearances, racial equity, and inclusion.

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

In addition to basic contact information about you and/or your group, we ask for a proposed program title and description, instruments used, bios, photos, and links or uploads to audio files illustrating your work.

• Fill in all prompts on the form and submit all required materials. Upon selection, this information is used for publicity and for contracts, so be mindful of submitting accurate information. If you have any technical difficulties or questions, please email Executive Director, Dominic Giardino.
• When uploading audio or linking video samples, include recordings of your entire ensemble and provide samples which include repertoire from your proposal. Failure to do so will result in your proposal not being considered.
• Submit professional photos, no selfies. If you do not have a picture of your group, please submit personal headshots of each member. Separate headshots are better than combining them yourself as we have many ratio needs in our publicity. You must include the name of the photographer(s) for proper credit.
• Decide on your artists and repertoire before submission. Ensure that all the information that will be made public – concert title, description, and list of personnel and instruments – is accurate. Our publicity begins in August, including the printed and online pieces which list the entire season.
• You may submit more than one concert proposal with separate programs.