Tiny Concerts

Leave the city’s chaos behind when you enter the jewel-box Chapel of All Saints to attend a Tiny Concert. Each 45-minute program of early music has been conceived to highlight the warm intimacy of the small English Gothic–style sanctuary tucked off Trinity’s nave, and the new pipe organ built just for that space — and for another time. The unique instrument, which features a rarely heard tuning system popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and pipes painstakingly cast by hand, creates — as Trinity’s organist Avi Stein puts it — “a particularly gentle sound” that is far “removed from the canyon of skyscrapers outside.”

Three Parts Upon a Ground

September 19, 5:30pm – 6:15pm and 6:30pm – 7:15pm

Hear Johann Pachelbel’s much-loved Canon in D Major the way it was meant to be heard. Presented in its original instrumentation, with three violins, the piece is paired with a lively but oft-forgotten jig the composer wrote to complement it. The evening’s lineup spotlights the canon — a musical form in which a single melody is layered and imitated in successive iterations, creating an intricate tapestry of voices — and includes pieces by the Italian Giovanni Gabrieli, as well as Three Parts Upon a Ground, by Englishman Henry Purcell. Like the Pachelbel, Purcell’s piece combines the complexities of ancient Renaissance canons with the tunefulness and virtuosity of the Baroque period. Performed by Robert Mealy, Beth Wenstrom, Ravenna Lipchik, violins; and Ezra Seltzer, cello. Led by organist Avi Stein.

Organ Concertos

October 8, 5:30pm – 6:15 pm and 6:30pm – 7:15pm

In the capable hands of Trinity’s lead organist and early-music expert Avi Stein, the pipe organ steps outside its traditional supporting role as church accompanist in a program — including Johann Sebastian Bach’s most-beloved harpsichord concerto, Concerto in D Minor — designed to celebrate it. But we are far from the soaring grandiosity typically associated with the instrument. Instead, you’ll experience a transcendent gentleness, beautifully backed by the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, that is specifically suited to the contemplative setting. George Frideric Handel’s Concerto in F Major and Thomas Augustine Arne’s Concerto in G Minor are also on the program.

Doors open 30 minutes before the event start time. Please be advised that seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is highly recommended. 

Host or Publisher Trinity Church Wall Street