Boston and Cambridge offer eight series of noon-hour musical offerings across seven locations. Five take place in churches, and four focus on the pipe organ. Most begin at 12:15pm (except as noted below), last 30-40 minutes, and feature guest performers. All are free, though gifts are encouraged at some. A brief run-down on those that I know of, and a few general observations follow.  Please let us know in a comment if we’ve missed anything. 

King’s Chapel
This is a Tuesday series.  Knowing of this Chapel’s exceptional instrument, one might guess that this is an organ series. And indeed, as it spans the entire year, this series is an important venue for that instrument, even though organ recitals are in the minority within it. But more generally, musical offerings here are truly diverse, mostly in the serious- (rather than popular-) music range, usually involving solo recitalists or small ensembles.  Most performers are accomplished professional musicians, but there is diversity in this respect too.  For instance, recent offerings included a concert by a fine chorus of middle-school students.  This site provides details and is updated periodically.

Trinity Church
This organ series runs Sept-May. Trinity’s website does not exaggerate when it claims that it is “one of the most successful and well-attended weekly organ recital series in the country.”  Indeed, the statement would also be true if “organ” were replaced with “lunch-hour.”  These recitals display the virtuosity of the musicians and the impressive qualities of Trinity’s large instrument. I don’t know what marching orders are given to the guest organists, but they usually create programs that have wide appeal but do not pander.    More HERE for further information.

Emmanuel Church
This Church’s lunchtime series begins at noon (not 12:15), and runs for six Thursdays during Lent (this year, through April 10^th). The focus is on solo works by Bach—for violin in 2024, for harpsichord this year. This is a popular series in a not-large space (Lindsey Chapel), so it is wise to reserve seats in advance. More HERE.

Although it is not quite a lunchtime series (brunchtime, maybe?), mention must be made also of Emmanuel’s Sunday series of Bach cantatas, which runs each year from late September through early May in the main sanctuary.  These begin a bit after 11am, at the end of the Church’s 10am worship service.  Apparently, nobody minds when persons slip in toward the end of the service, to hear just the cantata.  Having looked long and hard on the internet, I believe this to be the only place in the world at which one may hear Bach cantatas on a weekly basis—something of which Boston can be duly proud, given that these performances themselves are world-class.  (Again, if you know of another Bach cantata series anywhere that compares with this one, please let us know in Comments.) Further information  HERE.

Busch-Reisinger Museum
In this case, the perennial star is Harvard’s Flentrop organ, described HERE.  In line with the distinctive virtues of the instrument, the repertoire is commonly all-baroque, though a recent concert consisted of an affecting presentation of works by Arvo Pärt.  This series goes quiet for weeks at a time, but these days there are recitals each Thursday through April 24^th.   For further information, click on “Film & Performance” within this calendar.

Memorial Church
These recitals show up on an apparently irregular schedule. They are mostly Wednesday organ recitals, though among those that are upcoming is a piano recital, and a couple of the organ recitals are on other weekdays.  This setting has two independent, tonally-different organs, as described HERE.  One is in the rear gallery and one in the area behind the lectern, and either may be used in a given recital.  Organ recital repertoires in this series seem to include more music that is modern, even opaque, than is the case with others listed here. See HERE for further information.

Christian Science Mother Church
The pipes in this “Pipes on the Plaza” series are those of the Church’s remarkably large organ, described HERE. With respect to organs, size is about tonal variety rather than just volume; the larger the organ, the more genres (e.g., baroque, French romantic) it can do justice to.  This organ can do it all.  The series can go silent for months, and what is now listed are 4 concerts through October 13^th.  See HERE for further information.

Boston Public Library, Copley Square
My experience with this series is minimal, largely because its focus is not on performances of classical music.  The programs are from 12:30 to 1:30 on Fridays, June through August, in the Library’s courtyard.  This series is thus active roughly when the Trinity organ series across Copley Square is quiet. The 2025 roster has not yet been posted, but one can gain a sense of the offerings by reviewing last year’s. 

General Observations
Two weekly lunchtime series span large portions of the year: Kings’s (Tuesdays all year) and Trinity’s  (Fridays Sept to May).  Each of the other settings mounts fewer weekday concerts, mainly on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  It is uncommon for two lunchtime concerts to occur at the very same time, but it does happen.  So, the next few Thursdays, Bach-lovers must choose between harpsichord recitals at Emmanuel and recitals on the Flentrop organ at Busch (which usually feature Bach’s music).  And on Tuesday, April 8^th, persons with broad tastes may be drawn both to the Karl Henning Ensemble (King‘s Chapel), and to an organ recital by Alan Montgomery (Christian Science Mother Church).  Ah, the vexing decisions faced by those who live in a city which has such an embarrassment of (musical) riches!

Regarding which, there are few, if any, urban areas in the world where one can get more exposure to exceptionally fine organists playing exceptionally fine instruments—without even attending a church service!  And many of the aforementioned churches also put on concerts during other time-slots.  For example, Emmanuel Church has scheduled Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater this April 18^th at noon, also Bach’s B-minor Mass May 3^rd at 7:30pm.  A number of churches that have no noon-hour offerings (and are thus not aforementioned) also have remarkable musical offerings (beyond their regular worship services).  The annual Bach birthday event at First Lutheran Church in March is a good example (described HERE).  And across Berkeley Street at First Church Boston, there will be a concert on April 26^th at 7pm that includes the Fauré Requiem. Among Roman Catholic churches, websites indicate that St. John Seminary and St. Cecelia have had organ recitals in recent years, and that there will be one at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on June 29^th at 3pm.

More generally, ours is an area in which a number of churches have remarkably strong music programs.  Since moving (back) to this area in mid-2023, I’ve visited services at a wide variety of main-line Protestant churches in Boston and Brookline, and I can attest that there is a remarkable assortment of well-curated, well-performed available at numerous settings in our fair towns on Sunday mornings, at least from September through May.  Some music programs grow quiet in the summer, but not all do:  There was an achingly beautiful presentation of Brahms’ How Lovely is they Dwelling Place at Marsh Chapel (B.U.) on a Sunday morning in August!  Much of what one hears in services is traditional religious music, but not all of it is:  Last Sunday morning, the anthem at First Church Boston was Ecce gratum from Orff’s Carmina Burana.  And, as is apparent from a glance HERE, Church of the Advent (Brimmer Street) offers what is in effect a weekly, brunch-hour early liturgical music festival, within the worship context.

When you add, to all of the above, those musical events produced by non-church organizations but held at churches, you realize that those buildings comprise a really important group of music venues in our community.  The same conclusions can be reached by a glance at the list of upcoming events in this BMInt newsletter most anytime.

While we can celebrate the fact that many churches show a strong commitment to support of music in the worship context, one wonders if it can continue indefinitely.  One worries when the musicians-and-clergy comprise much more than, say, 10% of those present in a regular service, and I’ve been in some where the figure was noticeably higher.  One worries also about the futures of those weekday lunchtime music series that are sparsely attended. At only one of them—Emmanuel’s series of Thursday recitals in Lindsey Chapel—con one be sure to be part of an enthusiastic audience that fills the space. Those at Trinity Church and the Christian Science Mother Church are also well-attended, and might be even more so if better-known. The other series? Not consistently. They—including the Bach cantata series at Emmanuel on Sundays—merit larger audiences. 

 Check out some of these offerings if you can possibly take a midday break in the coming weeks.  As noted, they are all open to the public and free of charge; when donations are “suggested”, they are modest and optional.  And, in any case, the best way to support is to attend.

by Paul H. Blaney

Paul H. Blaney served as a church organist during his student years and again in early retirement.  In the 40+ years between, he taught psychology at UT Austin, University of Miami, and Emory & Henry College, also serving as dean at the latter two, and as editor of four editions of the Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology.  He founded the still-thriving Summer Concert Series of Coral Gables Congregational Church in 1986.  In retirement, Blaney taught courses on Bach, on early 20^th-century English music, and on early 20^th-century French music at the College for Older Adults in Abingdon VA.