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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 Gasselin 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
Sonic Visions. 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 sonata a...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
An Afternoon with 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 College with Israel Chorberg and Ruth Waterm...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 Poetry, Songs, and Dances By and About Women. BALAM presents a program of diverse compositions from the 17th and 18th centuries 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...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! Below is our proposed program, comprised entirely of Monteverdi duets and solos. The arc of the 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. Our namesake, Vivi Cantand...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 - bro/\dside
Restored. Restored highlights the modernity and creativity which formed and fermented in Cromwell’s London, bursting free after the Commonwealth period. Blending music from all strata of society, we capture the spirit of London as it becomes one of Europe’s most pluralistic and cosmopolitain so...March 14, 2019 - Pomerium
Clever Netherlands ~ Renaissance Musical Wizardry ~ Du Fay, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin, Lassus. POMERIUM, founded by Alexander Blachly in New York in 1972 to perform music composed for the famed chapel choirs of the Renaissance, derives its name from the title of a treatise by the 14th-century musi...March 21, 2019 - Jessica Park & Friends
Triple Treble: Three Violin Masterpieces from the Early Baroque. The turn of the 17th century saw the dawn of the stylus fantasticus, an improvisatory and virtuosic style of composition that was especially suited to treble instruments like the violin. Many composers were fascinated with the musical...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's Violoncello [da spalla]. 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 ...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.**
**Special one time Holy Week concert at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 E. 88th St.** The Midtown Concerts holy week tradition continues with a special one-time performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church featuring ARTEK. Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their exciting, dramatic performances of baroque ...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 da...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, Johann Hermann Schein, and Theodor Schwartzkopf. Abendmusik, New York's Early Music String Band, sh...May 23, 2019 - Mango
"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, we present two of her magnificent sacred cantatas along with some of her extraordinary in...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...June 27, 2019 - Voyage Sonique
Biber meets Bach. Biber meets Bach -- an intriguing concept, considering that Bach may have known and even owned some of Biber’s works. This program combines exciting works from both composers in trio sonata formation. The organ sonatas by Bach, compiled in Leipzig in the 1720s, contain three ind...
Past Events This Season
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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 ...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...