Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation (MMPAF)

12/27/2024

✨Ring in the new year with a fun and festive concert at 11 pm, followed by a champagne reception at the stroke of midnight. With over 12,000 pipes sounding into the resplendent nave from both sides of the chancel, the rear gallery, and even above in the dome, the dynamic range and vast color palette of the Æolian- Skinner organ at St. Bartholomew’s is an experience to behold in person.✨

$20 suggested donation: click here. No tickets are required. More info MMPAF.com

Great Music is produced by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation, which exists to cultivate, promote, and sponsor the performing arts at St. Bartholomew’s Church, a treasured masterpiece of architecture in Midtown Manhattan. ✨

12/12/2024

Deck the halls with bows of……plaid?

Another year of our festive dress rehearsal tradition! We‘re ready to present our✨Joyous Christmas Concert ✨ tomorrow night, December 13th, at 7:30pm!

Get your tickets now at MMPAF.org!! 🎄

12/06/2024

Join us NEXT FRIDAY to see the St. Bartholomew’s Choir (and the whole Church!) all dressed up and filled with holiday cheer! ✨✨✨

The Joyous Christmas Concert is December 13th at 7:30pm. Tickets available at MMPAF.org 🎄

11/24/2024

It’s that time of year! Join us for our….

✨Joyous Christmas Concert✨

Outside of the choir stalls, members of the St. Bartholomew’s Choir are often heard at many of the city’s most prestigious venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to Broadway stages and New York’s finest jazz clubs. Hear them celebrate the holiday season in our beautiful sanctuary with beloved traditional carols as well as festive new arrangements of sacred and secular Christmas favorites, all accompanied on our famed pipe organ.

Tickets: $100 (Angel), $50, $30

Get your ticket now at MMPAF.org ✨

11/17/2024

Swipe to see this great musical duo, in the beginning ➡️ today!
✨
And hear them perform TOMORROW, November 17th, at 2:30pm!✨
“My first time hearing Abraham and Isaac was in my teens — my mom was performing, and I was the page turner, “ relates Emerson Sieverts. “I’m thrilled that this time we get to sing together.”
✨
Join us! No tickets are needed to attend. A donation of $20 is suggested, which can be made at the concert or in advance at MMPAF.org

11/12/2024

THIS SUNDAY, November 17 at 2:30pm in the Chapel, we present Isaac and Abraham. Mother/son duo Barbara Hollinshead (mezzo-soprano) and Emerson Sieverts (tenor) have devised a topsy-turvy program exemplified by Benjamin Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Issac. Abraham is to be sung by a tenor and Isaac by an alto, so the performance will swap who is parent and who is child — hence the concert’s title: Isaac and Abraham.
✨
No tickets are needed to attend. A donation of $20 is suggested, which can be made at the concert or in at MMPAF.org/support (link to website in bio)
✨
Join us!

10/11/2024

Who left the organ out??

We did! TONIGHT, October 11 at 7:30pm at St. Bart’s, hear AND see Johannes Ebenbauer in recital. The concert is part of a host of jubilee celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of Austria’s greatest symphonists, Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). In his native Austria and around the world, Bruckner celebrations have been running in recent days, from Sep 4 to Oct 11, Bruckner’s birth and death anniversaries.
✨
No tickets are needed to attend. A donation of $20 is suggested, which can be made at the concert or in advance.
✨

10/10/2024

Hear Johannes Ebenbauer, professor of church music at the University of Vienna and past music director of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in recital at St. Bart’s TOMORROW, October 11th at 7:30pm.

Prof. Ebenbauer’s program is inspired by Bruckner’s work as an organist, an improviser, and a symphonist. Bruckner left only a handful of notated compositions for organ and the program opens with one of these. We will also hear the first movement of his Ninth Symphony, transcribed for a large symphonic organ, for which the organ at St. Bart’s is an ideal vehicle. The program also marks the 150th anniversary of Charles Ives’s birth, with a performance of his Variations on “America.” The concert will conclude with a four-movement symphony improvised (!) by Prof. Ebenbauer in a Romantic style based on themes from Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, Mass in F Minor, and Te Deum.

No tickets are needed to attend! A donation of $20 is suggested, which can be made at the concert or in advance.

10/08/2024

We are honored to present past music director of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Johannes Ebenbauer in an organ recital co-sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum at St. Bart’s on Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm. No tickets are needed to attend. A donation of $20 is suggested, which can be made at the concert or in advance.

The program is part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Austrian organist and symphonic composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).

04/29/2024

Looking for some concert fit inspiration? Look no further than this selection of snazzy jackets!

Don your own snazzy jacket and join us TOMORROW NIGHT at 7:30pm to hear beloved works by all of these snazzy jacket wearing composers: Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, and Rameau!

Get your tickets before they are gone! Visit MMPAF.org (link in bio)

04/23/2024

Next Tuesday! Join Paolo Bordignon, harpsichordist, in recital at St. Bartholomew’s Church!
✨
The year 1685 saw the births of three of musical history’s greatest creators: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. The harpsichord was the primary domestic keyboard instrument of the high Baroque and all three of these composers wrote masterfully and prolifically for it. Join us for this program including Handel’s Suite in E major (with the Harmonious Blacksmith Variations), a few handfuls of Scarlatti’s 555 Sonatas for harpsichord, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, a tour-de-force of the Baroque repertoire and the first keyboard concerto in history.
✨
Tickets are $25 - and can be purchased at MMPAF.org (link in bio).

03/28/2024

✨Thank you to ALL who came to our Holy Week Meditation in Song. It was a truly special evening, and a wonderful way to begin Holy Week.

Stay tuned for what’s next in our season at MMPAF.com✨

03/25/2024

✨The other half! Come see these fabulous singers next Monday at 6:00pm✨

Each of our soloists will present a unique set of songs, lieder, or mélodie which bring to life six secular themes of Holy Week. We cannot wait for you to join us for this very special recital!

Haven’t gotten your tickets yet? Hurry to MMPAF.org to secure yours!

03/19/2024

✨Three of our fabulous six soloists for our concert next Monday: A Holy Week Meditation in Song✨

Hear these artists explore themes of Holy Week in Secular Song, Lieder, and Mélodie, each bringing his or her own experiences and perspectives to this musical meditation.

Get your tickets now at MMPAF.org! (Link in bio)

03/11/2024

✨A Holy Week Meditation in Song✨

Join six singers of St. Bartholomew’s Choir as they step out of the choir stalls and take center stage as soloists, presenting a concert that reinterpret themes of holy week through the language of secular art song. Experience, the beauty, introspection, and contemplation of this unique musical offering, where the every day meets the divine.

Tickets are $25. Get yours at mmpaf.org ✨

12/29/2023

Swipe for some EXCELLENT NYE party outfit inspiration ✨
✨
It wouldn't be the holidays without Handel! Our annual "Concert to Usher in the New Year" on December 31 at 11pm will include orchestral works transcribed for organ.
✨
Handel's Water Music was premiered in 1717 at King George I's request for an orchestral concert on the Thames. The work was an instant hit and was transcribed for keyboard, as in the version here by 18th century composer William Boyce, so that the work could be enjoyed in every drawing room in London and beyond.
✨
The Hornpipe movement might be the best-known and will feature the horn and trumpet stops of the organ, including those in the Celestial division up in the great dome.
✨
A donation of $20 is suggested. No tickets required. We look forward to welcoming you.
✨

12/18/2023

✨A Concert to Usher in the New Year✨

Ring in the new year with a fun and festive concert at 11 pm, followed by a champagne reception at the stroke of midnight. Hear organ favorites like Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Major and Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster played by Paolo Bordignon with the console out front-and-center. With over 12,000 pipes sounding into the resplendent nave from both sides of the chancel, the rear gallery, and even above in the dome, the dynamic range and vast color palette of the Æolian- Skinner organ at St. Bartholomew’s is an experience to behold in person, enveloped by one of the world’s largest musical instruments.
✨
Suggested donation: $20
✨
More info at www.MMPAF.org

12/13/2023

What a great program, performance, and audience! A fantastic evening for great music! A Joyous Christmas Concert 2023.

Check out the rest of the season at MMPAF.org/2023-2024