New York City is home to some of the most beautiful and historic houses of worship in the United States. The incredible diversity of the city is reflected in its churches, synagogues and mosques. Former mayor Ed Koch once pointed out that “mass is said in 23 languages in this city.” New York is truly a city where spirituality can be freely expressed in many different ways, including through the joy of making music.
Pro Musica Tours has been designing performing arts tours in New York City for over 20 years. We have been the host to school choirs from all over the country. For these choirs, the highlight of their tours is often the opportunity to sing and celebrate in New York’s beautiful houses of worship. Pro Musica has developed a new program to provide more opportunities for community and church choirs to visit New York City, and to bring the joy of their music into some of the most famous churches in the world.
Pro Musica’s Choral Celebrations is a unique tour program exclusively for church and community choirs. Every tour is customized based on the interests of each group. Your personal program coordinator will serve as a single contact to coordinate all of the elements of your New York City program, including transportation, accommodations, optional meals, performance tickets and day tours. At the center of your time in New York is the opportunity for your choir to sing in some of the most beautiful churches in the country.
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Your personal tour coordinator will serve as a single contact to coordinate all of the elements of your customized tour, based on the needs and interest of your group.
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Transportation, accommodations, optional meals, performance tickets, day tours, and unique performance opportunities can all be arranged with a single call.
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Pro Musica will arrange for your group to perform in a variety of New York’s unique and historic houses of worship.
- We can design a tour that focuses on any particular aspect of New York that is of interest to your group including:
- Expert guided visits to New York’s extraordinary museums The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters, including exclusive themed visits that focus on religious art of different periods and countries.
- Detailed neighborhood tours that explore the history and unique cultural contributions of
different immigrant groups to the Big Apple.
- New York’s most famous sights and hidden treasures ranging from The Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, and The United Nations Headquarters; to The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Gracie Mansion, and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.
- Your group will be escorted by an expert guide who has been selected for you based on your interests and customized itinerary.
- Your tour coordinator has the most up to date information about upcoming performances, as well as access to tickets to even the most in demand performances – often before they are on sale to the general public.
- Our staff attends every show before recommending them to your group. You can be assured that your tour coordinator will assist you in selecting performances that are appropriate in content based on your preferences.
- Because Pro Musica works directly with the Airlines and Hotels, you benefit from lower prices than are available for schools that plan their own travel.
New York is also the home to some of the most gifted young composers in the country. Pro Musica has developed a relationship with many of these gifted artists to provide very special opportunity, exclusively available as part of the Choral Celebrations program. We will commission a composer to write a choral piece, based on your choice of sacred text, specifically for your group. You will receive the music for your commissioned piece at least one month before you travel to New York, to provide you with plenty of time to learn the music. Then, upon your arrival, you will meet the composer who wrote your piece who will personally coach your choir on the piece in preparation for public performance. Once you return to your home city, you will be free to perform this piece whenever and wherever you like. While most choirs think that commissioning a new piece would be out of their reach financially, through Pro Musica, any choir can have a special piece of sacred music written specifically for them.
To find out more about the Choral Celebrations program, please call Justin Steensma at (212) 541-5122, or email choralcelebrations@promusicatours.com
You may also fill out a web inquiry form by clicking HERE.
Below, you will find information on some of New York’s historic houses of worship which you may choose to visit during your stay in the city:
Abyssinian Baptist Church -132 Odell Clark Place (138th Street)
Architect: Charles Bolton
Date Constructed: 1923
Baptist
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The original congregation of this church was formed in 1808 by black Baptists who had the choice to either accept segregated seating in New York’s existing Baptist church, or start their own. After the turn of the century Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. became the pastor of the congregation, and under his leadership the current church was built. It was completely funded by the congregation—a massive work of community mobilization and involvement. Since its inception, the popular church has been an important center for political activism, civil rights struggles, and liberation theology. |
Riverside Church - Riverside Drive @ 123rd Street
Architect: Henry Pelton and Allen & Collens
Date Constructed: 1930
Interdenominational
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed this church when he decided that the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine was being built to slowly for his taste. Unlike St. John’s, which is built entirely of stone in the genuine Gothic mode, Riverside Church was built with a structural steel frame covered by a decorative Gothic–style stone cladding, which allowed it to be completed much more quickly. The majestic tower houses the world’s largest carillon with a total of 74 bells. The Bourdon (hour–bell) in this carillon was the heaviest and largest carillon bell ever cast. The church is famous for its social progressivism and has often functioned as a center for social and political activism.
St. John the Divine - Amsterdam Avenue @ 110th Street
Architect: Heins and Lafarge, Ralph Cram.
Construction began in Episcopal
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Although it’s still unfinished, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is one of the world’s largest cathedrals; the huge interior is 601 feet long and 124 feet high at the main crossing. Construction began in 1892 but was completely halted by World War II. Work began again in 1979 and continues today. The church is the seat of the Episcopal Bishop in New York, but it is also known as a center for nondenominational worship; events such as the annual Blessing of the Animals—featuring elephants, horses, dogs, and many other species—are attended by New Yorkers of all creeds. Side chapels feature such unusual icons as drawings by Keith Haring and a memorial to the Fire Department of New York.
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St. Marks–in–the–Bowery - 2nd Avenue @ 10th Street
Architect: Ithiel Town
Date Constructed: 1799
Episcopal
St. Marks–in–the–Bowery is the second–oldest surviving church in the city after St. Paul’s; it was built in 1799, and the Greek Revival steeple was added in 1828. It was built on the site of Peter Stuyvesant’s family chapel, and Stuyvesant himself was buried in the churchyard cemetery. In the 20th century it became a center for arts and performance; visiting artists have included dancers Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and poets Edna St. Vincent Millay and William Carlos Williams. As an alternative performance space, it’s also been a venue for emerging artists and poets through programs such as Danspace and the Poetry Project.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral - 5th Avenue @ 50th Street
Architect: James Renwick, Jr
Date Constructed: 1858–1879
Roman Catholic
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This Gothic Revival cathedral, loosely based on the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, is architect James Renwick’s masterpiece and the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The cornerstone was laid in 1858 and the cathedral opened its doors in 1879; the two 330–foot spires were constructed between 1885 and 1888. It is the largest fully decorated Gothic cathedral in the United States, with a seating capacity of 2,400. As the seat of the Archdiocese of New York, St. Patrick’s is a highly visible center of Catholicism in the United States; it has been visited by both Pope Paul VI (in 1964) and Pope John Paul II (in 1979 and 1995).
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St. Paul’s Chapel - Broadway @ Fulton Street
Architect: Archibald Mcbean and James Lawrence (the tower, steeple, and porch), and Pierre L’Enfant (interior)
Date Constructed: 1766
Episcopal
Modeled after London’s St. Martin–in–the–Fields, St. Paul’s Chapel is the oldest church in New York City and the oldest public building in continuous use. George Washington, General Cornwallis, and the Marquis de Lafayette all worshipped here, and a service was held for Washington’s inauguration as the first U.S. President. Located next to the World Trade Center site, the church miraculously escaped destruction when the twin towers fell and became a spiritual center for rescue workers in the following months.
Temple Emanu–el - 65th Street @ 5th Avenue
Architect: Robert Kohn, Charles Butler, and Clarence Stein
Date Constructed: 1929
Jewish / Reform
Emanu–el is one of the largest synagogues in the world, with seats for 2,500 and a congregation that grew from humble beginnings on the Lower East Side (it started in 1844 with thirty–three members) to become the largest Reform congregation in the world. The building itself is magnificent, with Byzantine and Romanesque stylistic elements held together by an Art Deco aesthetic; the detailing includes colorful mosaics and a Tiffany window.
Trinity Church - Broadway @ Wall Street
Architect: Richard Upjohn
Date Constructed: 1846
Episcopal
The first Trinity Church was consecrated in 1698, when New York was still part of the British Empire, but it burned down soon after the American Revolution. A second building lasted only fifty years, due to structural problems. What stands on the site now is the third Trinity Church building, built in a Gothic Revival style. From 1846 until the 1860s the church spire was the tallest structure in Manhattan, and old pictures show it rising far above the one– and two–story buildings below.
