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  • September 6, 2018 - Lyracle
    Voice and Viol: History's Forgotten Dynamic Duo. The rich traditions of accompanying a solo voice with a single viol in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy and England have been overshadowed in modern practice by accompanying the voice with plucked instruments. This program showcases this fo...
    September 13, 2018 - Vivaldi Project
    From Trio Sonata to Trio Concertant. The Vivaldi Project continues to explore the overlooked role of the string trio in chamber music history, from the Baroque trio sonata through its rich and varied Classical forms. The Trio will feature selections from their first, and soon-to-be-released second ...
    June 27, 2019 - Voyage Sonique
    The Singing Violins: Italy Come and hear Voyage Sonique and their two virtuoso violinists in this program of gorgeous Italian baroque music. Displaying the vocal, singing qualities of the violin, these trio sonatas are rapturous in their sweeping lines and gorgeous harmonies. Voyage Sonique is a ...
    September 20, 2018 - Kristina Giles
    Campagnoli's Caprices for Viola. Kristina Giles is currently recording and annotating all 41 of Bartolomeo Campagnoli's Caprices for Viola. Published in 1814, this collection is a rare set of beautiful pieces written specifically for the viola, in a period when the instrument had yet to become anyt...
    September 27, 2018 - Rebecca Pechefsky
    François Couperin at 350. François Couperin, called “François Le Grand,” is considered the most illustrious member of the Couperin family. His four books of keyboard suites contain some of the richest and most exquisite music of the French Baroque. To commemorate the 350th anniversary of his...
    October 4, 2018 - The Western Wind
    Music In The Time of Hamilton This program celebrates the extraordinary energy and diversity of the music that was created, sung and played when Alexander Hamilton and his peers were fighting the American Revolution and creating the American Democracy. The program features music commemorating battl...
    October 11, 2018 - Ryland Angel & Richard Erickson
    Schemelli Gasangbuch Project Ryland Angel and Rick Erickson explore J.S. Bach's only songbook, filled with either new or figured sacred songs. They have commissioned new English versed translations to add new possibilities to this seldom heard work, along with free organ improvisations. Born on St...
    October 18, 2018 - New Amsterdam Consort
    Music in Five Parts. This program explores the underplayed repertoire of five-part string music from the seventeenth and late sixteenth centuries. Witness a diversity of national styles from Italy to Austria and luxuriate in the rich textures of this music that is full of surprises and invention.Ne...
    October 25, 2018 - Bud Roach
    O Envious Day Canadian tenor Bud Roach returns to the Midtown Concert Series with "O Envious Day", accompanying himself on the theorbo with songs and arias by John Wilson, Henry Lawes, Nicholas Lanier, Claudio Saracini, and Domenico Melli. Presented with projected translations and historical readin...
    November 1, 2018 - Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble
    Giovanniana! If you were a musician in Venice ca. 1600-30, you would have been surrounded by many people named Giovanni. Among them, a posse formed around Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612), who was the town’s most influential church musician, with a strong reputation that attracted musicians far and ...
    November 8, 2018 - Rumore Terribile (Salomé de France and Martin Bernstein)
    Rosalind. This concert is going to tell a story about a young English flutist. In 1651, the king of England Charles II was exiled to France. Well aware that exile could still be fun if you’re rich enough, Charles made sure to take a few of his favorite musicians with him. Our flutist, one Rosalin...
    November 15, 2018 - Canzonetta Duo
    Enchanting Voices: Music of Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini. Thanks to a combination of extraordinary musical gifts, strength of character, shrewdness, and the support of highly placed patrons, Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi established themselves as composers with reputations on a par...
    November 29, 2018 - House of Time
    Angels and Demons In this concert we explore psychologically problematic manifestations in baroque music. Emmanuel Bach's musical depiction of the dialogue between an optimist and a pessimist sounds to us like an exploration of extremes verging on madness. Tartini claimed to have composed his sonat...
    December 6, 2018 - Nell Snaidas + Daphna Mor and friends
    SONGS of Feasting and Flames: A sephardic celebration of Hanuka. SONGS of Feasting and Flames: A sephardic celebration of Hanuka is a festive mixture of sacred and secular songs focused on the feast of Hanuka. The music of the Sephardim was preserved by its women through oral tradition, passing dow...
    December 13, 2018 - Karen Marmer & Dongsok Shin
    Two Sonatas for Violin & Fortepiano by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart Karen Marmer and Dongsok Shin will be performing an all-Mozart program, featuring two sonatas for violin and piano and a short solo piano selection.Karen Marie Marmer studied violin at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens Coll...
    December 20, 2018 - duoSeraphim
    “A dispetto del tempo e della sorte” (in defiance of time and fate). duoSeraphim presents a thorough exploration of Barbara Strozzi’s oeuvre -- and what made her voice so singular. She thrived as an independent woman in an era of absolute male dominance in every arena, all the while writing ...
    December 27, 2018 - Salisbury Four
    The Soft Complaining Flute. The Salisbury Four presents selections from the medieval and Renaissance carol, canzonet, madrigal, and motet repertoire suited to its forces combining early winds, voices, and plucked strings.The Salisbury Four is made up of artist-teachers from the faculties of Hofstra...
    January 3, 2019 - Eurasia Consort
    Across Central Asia: Music from the Tang and Ottoman Courts. The Silk Road was a living conduit of goods and ideas thriving from 500 to 1500 and connecting China to the Mediterranean. In a program featuring medieval recorder, kugo harp, oud and percussion, the Eurasia Consort explores Chinese and O...
    January 10, 2019 - BALAM Dance Theatre
    Period Work by and about Women BALAM offers a new vision of contemporary dance emanating from an artful blend of diverse world dance styles and historical periods with Balinese theatre. The company's fusion repertoire presents a dance theatre that integrates traditional and contemporary choreograph...
    January 17, 2019 - John Mark Rozendaal and Adam Young
    Poeticall Musicke. A dazzling array of colors, textures, tonalities, and affects are elicited from two bass viols in the works of three masterful composer/performers of the seventeenth century: the eccentric Elizabethan courtier, Tobias Hume; the mysterious French esoteric, le Sieur de Sainte-Colom...
    January 24, 2019 - ALBA Consort
    The Renaissance Reborn. ALBA Consort presents Renaissance music from the Mediterranean of France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Armenia and Sephardic music including works from Venice in an exciting time when East met West. And with variations by modern composer Leonard Lehrman of a Machaut viralei, truly,...
    January 31, 2019 - Vivi Cantando
    Ohimè! Composed entirely of Monteverdi duets and solos, the arc of this program takes the listener from a “glass half-empty” to a “glass half-full” state of mind, portraying the relatable journey of love’s trials and tribulations. The ensemble's namesake, Vivi Cantando, is derived from "...
    February 7, 2019 - Tina Chancey
    L'Ange Diabolique/Diabolical Angel, the Unrepentant Pardessus. Created to maintain the status quo, the pardessus de viole proceeded to shatter it. While its given repertoire was placid and well-mannered, something like that of an aristocratic milk-maid, privately, players borrowed some of the most ...
    February 14, 2019 - KHORIKOS
    Love and Lamentation. This program aims to juxtapose some of the most expressive sacred and secular vocal music of the medieval and Renaissance eras, featuring dramatic settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Alonso Lobo and Ferrabosco the Elder alongside heartfelt and heart-wrenching love song...
    February 21, 2019 - Tableau Vivant
    Telemann in Paris Part Two. In 1737 Georg Philip Telemann journeyed to Paris at the enthusiastic and long-standing invitation of four distinguished French musicians: the flutist Michel Blavet, the violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon, the gambist Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, and a cellist/harpsichordist known...
    February 28, 2019 - Anima
    ANIMA MUNDI: The Cosmos Shimmers. From the mysteries of the musical proportions of the World Soul to the comic messes caused by love and the senses, Anima reflects on the elements and harmonies of body and soul: both universal and all-too-human. Readings paraphrased from Plato's Timaeus.Anima speci...
    March 7, 2019 - Kevin C. Devine
    "Maîtres du clavecin" Please join us as we welcome harpsichordist Kevin C. Devine to the series.    Talented multi-instrumentalist Kevin Devine has performed on the harpsichord from coast to coast. His early music ensemble bro/\dside made their debut in September 2017 at the ...
    March 14, 2019 - Pomerium
    Number Mania: Medieval Music in Tune with the Heavens. Sung by one of the world’s most celebrated vocal ensembles, this program is designed to explore the relationship between numerical patterns and sounding music in an age when number literally ruled people’s thinking. Hear how these patterns ...
    March 21, 2019 - Jessica Park & Elliot Figg
    Grand Tour of the Late Baroque through the Violin Sonata   Jessica Park and Elliot Figg play a concert featuring works by composers Georg Philip Telemann, Francesco Maria Veracini, and François Francoeur.Jessica Park, baroque violinElliot Figg, harpsichord   1:15 - 2:00 pmAll concerts...
    March 28, 2019 - Concordian Dawn
    The Story of an Orange-hued Tyrant. Chaillou de Pesstain’s magnificent, radical fourteenth-century reinvention of the old French Roman de Fauvel  tells the story of an orange colored half-horse/half-human who rises to power despite blatant, corrupt, unethical acts. Our redaction of Fauvel ex...
    April 4, 2019 - Daniel S. Lee
    Bach-Beat Daniel's newest project is to perform on the violoncello da spalla, which is a type of cello that existed during the 17th and 18th centuries played by violinists or violists. Bach wrote some of his works for "violoncello" for this instrument. He will be performing a couple of Bach's suite...
    April 11, 2019 - Douglas Lundeen
    The Truly French Horn. This program will feature French pieces written for the piston-valve French horn. The appropriate colors and nuances of this repertoire are uniquely achievable on the instrument for which the works were written. The program will include music from Saint-Saens to Poulenc.Dr. D...
    April 18, 2019 - ARTEK **Special one time Holy Week concert at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 E. 88th St.**
    Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637-1695): Lamentations of Jeremiah. The Midtown Concerts holy week tradition continues with a special one-time performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church featuring ARTEK. Many composers of the 17th-century wrote beautiful music for the Tenebrae services in Holy Week, in wh...
    April 25, 2019 - Marginalia
    Lancelot: Sword and Sorrow. This program explores the life of Sir Lancelot du Lac, alternating music with readings from medieval Arthurian sources. The story traces Lancelot’s journey from King Arthur’s greatest knight, through the Grail quest and his love affair with the queen, leading to trag...
    May 2, 2019 - Arnie Tanimoto and Gwendolyn Toth
    The Viola Bastarda.   Calling for incredible range and agility it is no wonder that the viola da gamba was dubbed ‘the queen’ of the bastarda style. This program will explore the viola bastarda repertoire from its origins in the mid 16th century up until its final compositions in the earl...
    May 9, 2019 - Trobár
    Godi, Firençe! - Four Seasons in Trecento Florence During the fourteenth century, Florence’s republican society fostered accomplishments in poetry, sculpture, architecture, and a varied musical culture. Trobár explores this milieu in a presentation of madrigals, ballate, caccias, laude, and dan...
    May 16, 2019 - Abendmusik
    Kammermusik für Abendmusik Abendmusik presents a program featuring works for the viola da gamba for small and large forces by composers including Carlo Farina, David Funck, Johann Michael Nicolai, and Theodor Schwartzkopf. Abendmusik, New York's Early Music String Band, showcases the rarely-perfo...
    May 23, 2019 - Mango Baroque
    "And God Said..." Called "the marvel of our century," Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was highly regarded in her day for the genius of her compositions, yet her music today is seldom performed. In this program, Mango Baroque present two of her magnificent sacred cantatas along with some of her extra...
    May 30, 2019 - Twa Corbies
    Out of the Mist. Out of the Mist explores the very early music of the British Isles, through the development of Middle English polyphony. The program includes songs and poetry of the Norse and Anglo-Saxon raiders and settlers, the chants of Celtic monks, and songs in the emerging Middle English lan...
    June 6, 2019 - Empire Viols
    Le Retour: music for two viols from the Golden Age of French music. Join Empire Viols à deux performing some of the glorious viol music from the French baroque, taking as inspiration the words of Couperin: “Although a harpsichord or a theorbo can be added to this piece, it will sound best on tw...
    June 13, 2019 - Satono Norizuki & Patricia-Ann Neely
    Composition and Improvisation in the Medieval Time. Today, only a part of the instrumental music repertoire in the medieval period is still extant, because musicians in those days often didn’t write down their compositions. They usually performed pieces in the improvisatory style. This program in...
    June 20, 2019 - Concentus
    German Extravaganza. After The Thirty Years' War, German cities started a competition of importing culture from Italy and France. The greatest composers of the high baroque period in Germany were all admirers of French and Italian music. They composed the chamber sonatas in the Italian style with t...

Midtown Concerts sponsors lunchtime performances of music of the 18th century and earlier. Ensembles are chosen by a panel of early music specialists from the metropolitan area.

Time: Thursdays, 1:15–2:00 pm
All concerts are free; no tickets or reservations are necessary.

Concerts are in person at St. Malachy's Church, 239 West 49th Street, Manhattan, AND live streamed.