This season demands a heroic effort from all of us to preserve and foster the memorable musical performances for which The Queen’s Chamber Band has become justifiably famous. In spite of dwindling financial support from government and private sources alike, we offer a season bursting with the excitement of virtuoso performances by musicians bound together by their love of music-making and affectionate regard for each other.

If you value our commitment to creating musical events of the highest order, please take an active role in supporting us this season. Buy a series ticket! Your tax-deductible gift, at whatever level, will help us as we seek support from public agencies and private foundations. Seeking a fresh approach while cutting costs, we have moved our series down to an historical site with a long history of supporting artistic endeavors: St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery.

Acoustically live, wheel-chair accessible and convenient to public transportation, St. Mark’s deserves some of the credit for the revitalization of its surrounding neighborhood. The Poetry Project, Danscape Project and Richard Foreman’s avant-garde theater all enjoy residencies there.

The church site dates back to 1651 when Petrus Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam, purchased land for a “bowery” or farm from the Dutch West India Company. By 1660 his family had built a chapel occupying the present day site of St. Mark’s Church. Stuyvesant’s remains, buried in 1678, rest in a vault under the chapel. Stuyvesant’s great-grandson donated the property to the Episcopal Church in 1793, stipulating that a new chapel be erected. In 1795 the cornerstone of the present day St. Mark’s Church was laid. Alexander Hamilton provided legal aid in incorporating it as the first Episcopal Parish independent of Trinity Church in the United States.

To experience the special aura that surrounds the space (enhanced by our committed musical performances!), please join us on October 18, November 29 and May 23, all Sunday afternoons at 3 PM. Enjoy a glass of wine at our after-concert reception and then plan to dine in the area as well, where eating establishments offer reasonable prices or “high-end dining for the Bohemian Boulevardier” (Manhattan by Citysearch).

And please save Saturday, March 27 at 8 for our annual Bach Birthday festivities!


Composer Joseph Fennimore contributed the following quote, found while reading the journals of Denton Welch:

"....Have you ever tho't that a large harpsichord played by a master or mistress is like a large very beautiful cat unsheathing its claws, pawing the air, mouthing. miawlling, waving ostrich-plume tail, gnashing white needle teeth? This cat would be smoke-grey with sinews of toughest leather under the distasteful velvet depths of the fur; and its eyes would be wolfish topazes or burnt sugar. It would be stretching and plucking and striking, calling up some spirit that had never been wakened before." -Oct. 26, 1946