Visiting Guest Choirs & Artists

Thank you for considering Grace Church as a place in New York City to share your musical offerings.

General Information

  • For both visiting guest choirs and artists, Grace Church in New York provides one poster produced by Grace Church and placed in the sign case one week prior to the performance. Information for this poster must be received via email and ready to cut and paste into the poster three weeks prior to performance.
  • Should Admission be charged for a concert, it would include a $5.00 donation per person that would be given to an appropriate charity in NYC. The charity would be announced in the publicity of the concert and be determined by Grace Church. This would be paid after the concert when ticket sales are counted to Grace Church in addition to the rental fee.
  • The choirs and artists must provide their own programs and publicity.
  • There are no recording services available at the church. Choirs and artists must make their own arrangements for recordings. These must be communicated to the church and approved three weeks prior to performance with locations, requirements and timing of set up, break down included. It most likely would require an additional fee for staff time.

Visiting Guest Choirs

Guest Choirs are defined as those choral ensembles attached to sacred and educational institutions.

Opportunities

  • Summer church services – Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
    Interested Choirs should send or make available via web link two examples of their recent offerings in contrasting styles. Approved choirs would be welcomed to sing at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday Mornings. They could provide two anthems and support the regular service music and hymns of the Parish liturgy. Saturday Organ and Choir Rehearsal time would be arranged. Music Staff of Grace Church would still accompany the hymns of the service, but it would be possible for the organist of the guest Church to provide the organ voluntary prior to the service and accompany the guest choir.
  • Evensongs and special services
  • Residencies
    Choirs wishing to develop a more ambitious “residency” would need to enter into a dialogue with the Rector and Organist and Master of Choristers to see what is possible depending on schedules and staff availability. Such a request may require the guest choir to make a special donation for extra expenses Grace Church might occur developing and supporting such a request that could add to the normal liturgical schedule of the Parish.
  • Choir Concerts

Costs

All guest choirs requesting to sing a concert would be required to pay a donation to Grace Church. The fee would be no less than $1,000.00 and would be increased depending on the scope of the offering and rehearsal time/facilities required.

  • Example One: $1,250.00

    Choir of 30 to sing for one hour at the Choir steps. No Organ or Piano. One Hour of Rehearsal prior to the offering that must take place when the church is already open to the public and the concert end in time for clean up and departure while the church is still open. Includes the use of the Nursery for bags, changing and the use of the downstairs bathrooms across from the Nursery. The Choir must provide their own programs and publicity.

  • Example Two: $1,500.00

    Same as one with the use of the piano. Adds one additional hour for piano rehearsal.

  • Example Three: $1,750.00

    Same as one with the use of the organ. Adds one additional hour for organ rehearsal. As in all cases which involve the organ, all persons requesting to play the organ and arrangements for accompanists at the Grace Church organs must be approved in advance by the Organist and Master of Choristers as part of the application for an event.

Visiting Guest Artists

For promoting a musical offering at a time when the church is already open to the public, the fee shall be no less than $2,500.00.

Included

  • 3 hours of rehearsal time at a time approved by the program staff of the church.
  • A program of not more than one hour duration concluding in time for clean up and departure while the church is still open to the public.
  • Should the piano or organ be used, an additional $200.00 for piano tuning or $300.00 for organ tuning would be charged.
  • Fees for touch up tuning of the large organ would be based on real costs of such tuning as required.

Extras and Other Situations

The costs for any projects exceeding this description would be determined once the needs of the project have been agreed to between the artist(s) and the church. This fee shall not be less than $5,000.00

Additional Opportunities

Practice Time

Persons wishing to play/practice on the Grace Church Organ must first be approved by the Organist and Master of Choristers. The Fee is $125.00 per hour. Once approved the time to be scheduled would be worked out with the church office and approved by the program staff of the church.

NYC AGO Open Console Time

Each month on a designated Saturday Morning, two to three hours of open console time is available for members of the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists to schedule without fee. The sessions are in one hour blocks and scheduled on a first come, first serve basis.

Educational Programs

Musical Organizations wishing to use Grace Church for their programs are invited to submit project proposals to the Music Office. Such programs would require a donation to cover expenses and to help with the maintenance of the fabric and musical instrument collection. The base fee is $500.00 that would be adjusted depending on requirements once the specifications of the project are determined, scheduled and accepted by the program staff of Grace Church.

Bach at Noon and The Weekend Organ Meditations

Several dates each month are set aside for guest organists/artists to participate in the organ meditations played Tuesday through Sunday in the Church.

The Bach at Noon programs are thirty minutes in length from 12:20-12:50 pm and are devoted to the repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Weekend programs feature diverse repertoire for the organ and last forty-five minutes from 4:00-4:45 pm. Saturday meditations feature the traditional repertoire of the pipe organ, while Sunday meditations include favorite hymns, anthems and voluntaries played on the pipe organ.

Submit Your Application

To begin the process of creating a musical project at Grace Church in New York please prepare a summary proposal of your project and send to Dr. Patrick Allen, Organist and Master of Choristers.

Contact Dr. Patrick Allen