Best ways to tap high culture without spending all day in line

Concerts at One
Free to be downtown during your lunch break? Trinity Church Wall Street offers hour-long recitals every Thursday in its stately sanctuary, and on Monday in the more intimate St. Paul’s Chapel. Best part: It’ll cost you only $2.
Trinity Church Wall Street: 89 Broadway at Wall St (212-602-0872). St. Paul's Chapel (downtown): 209 Broadway between Fulton and Vesey Sts (212-233-4164)

Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
If you’re not catching concerts in this venerable series, meant to put high culture into the hands of the working masses, then we just can’t help you. Year after year, PSCNY presents primo talent—often the same performers playing elsewhere for top dollar—at less than $20 a ticket.
Various venues (pcsny.org)

Juilliard, MSM and Mannes
You already knew that the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College attract some of the best and brightest young musicians from all over the world. But did you also know that all three regularly present concerts that are open to the public and free of charge—including world-premiere compositions and fully staged operas? Now you do.
Juilliard: 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway at 65th St (212-769-7406). Manhattan School of Music: Broadway at 122nd St, Columbia University–City College (212-749-2802). Mannes College: 150 W 85th St between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves (212-580-0210)

The Frick Collection
After presenting free concerts for decades, the Frick recently started charging $25 per ticket. It’s still one of the best bargains in town, seeing as how scores of star performers have made their earliest New York appearances in this intimate, remarkably prescient series.
1 E 70th St at Fifth Ave (212-288-0700)

Ensemble ACJW
Concerts by this hotshot group of Juilliard grad students are quite possibly the most unheralded bargains in town—adventurous programs covering everything from the Baroque to contemporary music, played with precision and heart, and almost always priced less than $20. Watch the Juilliard and Carnegie Hall websites for upcoming dates.
Juilliard: 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway, at 65th St (212-769-7406). Carnegie Hall: 154 W 57th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves (212-247-7800)

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