The Broadway Bach Ensemble is a 60-piece community orchestra that has been performing high-quality free concerts in New York for more than 40 years. I have had the pleasure of playing with the ensemble for the past 30 years! As a group, we present three orchestral concerts each year. Every spring, members may form smaller ensembles to perform in our annual chamber music concert. The next one is on Thursday, March 19, and was made possible, in part, through an ACMP Impresario grant.

Broadway Bach Ensemble Chamber Music Concert
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 7:30pm
The Broadway Presbyterian Church
601 West 114th St.
New York, NY 10025
FREE ADMISSION (no tickets required)
More information

While most of the musicians are regular members of the Broadway Bach Orchestra or have performed with the ensemble at some point, other chamber musicians from the area also join us for this free community event. The programs typically feature a wide variety of instrumental combinations and musical styles, ranging from the Baroque era to the 21st century—from string trios and brass quintets to percussion ensembles and groups with singers.

This year’s chamber concert highlights music for winds. Because the repertoire written specifically for wind ensembles is more limited than that for groups such as piano trios or string quartets, wind players often turn to transcriptions. In this program, two well-known works originally written for solo piano are heard in arrangements for wind ensemble.

Maurice Ravel’s charming Le Tombeau de Couperin, written in the style of a Baroque suite, commemorates friends of the composer who died in World War I. A wind quintet version arranged by French hornist Mason Jones will be performed.

Béla Bartók’s stirring Romanian Folk Dances will be heard in an arrangement for wind quartet by the ensemble’s clarinetist, Monte Morgenstein. That group will also perform a selection of Hebrew melodies arranged by Morgenstein.

Another woodwind quartet on the program is an original work by Jean Françaix, the French neoclassical composer known for his elegant and witty chamber music.

The flute will be prominently featured in two pieces. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Allegro and Minuet in G major for Two Flutes, written when the composer was still a teenager, reflects the light and graceful style of late-18th-century chamber music. Gioachino Rossini’s Flute Quartet No. 1 in G major showcases the young composer’s melodic gift and operatic flair, with the flute taking a brilliant and singing role.

String ensembles will not be entirely neglected, however. Joaquín Turina’s La oración del torero, Op. 34 (“The Bullfighter’s Prayer”), inspired by Spanish folk music and an afternoon watching bullfights, will be performed in its familiar string quartet version. The work was originally written for four laúds (Spanish folk lutes).

Niccolò Paganini’s Duetto in G minor for Violin and Cello is one of a set of chamber works he composed for unusual instrumental pairings. The piece blends virtuosic violin writing with an expressive cello line, creating a lively and engaging musical dialogue between the two instruments.

This diverse program promises to provide an enjoyable evening of music for all who attend.