MSC 2025-26 Season

The Market Square Concerts StoryBased in the Capital City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Market Square Concerts is dedicated to the presentation of a wide repertoire of chamber music performed by distinguished professional musical artists, both established and emerging. Market Square Concerts presents premieres of newly composed music as well as monumental works by revered composers from the past in six season concerts and a summer festival.Over the years, Market Square Concerts has developed an international reputation in classical music circles. In fact, together with Carnegie Hall, Market Square Concerts is one of only eight presenters in the country which biannually bestows the prestigious Chamber Music America Cleveland Quartet Award to a promising young string quartet. All past winners have developed major international careers and have been recognized with multiple honors including the Grammy award.Many of the artists Market Square Concerts presents have won Grammy and Tony awards, MacArthur Fellowships, Kennedy Center Honors and world-wide press accolades. Thanks to Market Square Concerts, local audiences can experience musical luminaries like violinist Midori, pianist Stephen Hough, clarinetist David Shifrin and the eminent Emerson Quartet - many of the same ensembles that perform in Carnegie Hall - in intimate spaces close to home.Market Square Concerts is also committed to making sure children in our area have access to the same quality of classical music performances and educational programs as their peers in large metropolitan areas. Through our Soundscape Educational Outreach program, thousands of students and young people have attended presentations by world-class musicians.Part of the Harrisburg Arts District, Market Square Concerts is a resident company at Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts and regularly collaborates with other arts organizations and educational institutions in the region including Harrisburg Symphony, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Messiah University, and Hershey Medical Center.Market Square Concerts was originally offered as a community outreach in the late 1960s adjunct to a vibrant music program at Market Square Presbyterian Church. Under the direction of the church musicians at the time, Ken and Ellen Landis, the programs featured nationally and internationally known guest artists, as well as major choral works performed by the Motet Choir and the Concerto Soloists chamber orchestra of Philadelphia. These programs continued into the late 1970s. Since 1962, the church owned and FM radio station, (known as WMSP-FM), broadcasting classical music and, remarkably, run largely by community volunteers. Lucy Miller Murray, a station volunteer, organized continued programs of live classical music concerts at Market Square Presbyterian Church in 1980’s initially for the purpose of financial support for WMSP. More a musical then a financial success, the Market Square Concerts programs developed a loyal and devoted following and a community-based board of directors which formed as an independent non-profit organization in 1982. Market Square Concerts has now enjoyed more than 40 years of success as a presenter of world-class chamber music in Harrisburg. Although the two organizations are entirely independent, they share the Market Square name, and the church continues to provide the primary venue for Market Square Concerts programs.In 2008, Lucy Miller Murray a nationally recognized music annotator, poet and novelist, was succeeded by Ellen Hughes, who expanded Market Square Concerts by founding the Soundscape Educational Outreach program. Since 2011, MSC has been led by violinist Peter Sirotin, concertmaster of Harrisburg Symphony, and his wife, pianist Ya-Ting Chang, as co-directors.If you have a question, just call 717-221-9599 or email info@marketsquareconcerts.org.