Give the gift of community, opportunity, and great music!

 

The NYC Orchestra Project (NYCOP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to bridging the gap between the student environment and professional orchestral work. NYCOP is dedicated to creating large-scale orchestra performance opportunities for early-career musicians and providing low-cost, accessible concerts for audiences across New York City.  

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NYCOP began as a series of student-led orchestra projects at the Manhattan School of Music, culminating in the MSM Mahler Project, a performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony in February 2025. After incorporating as a 501(c)(3) in the summer of 2025, we launched our 2025-2026 inaugural season, which includes five orchestra concerts and two fully staged operas. Our concerts are completely programmed, produced, and performed by students and recent graduates. Recognizing the scarcity of large-scale performance opportunities in the early career stage, this season features some of the largest symphonic repertoire ever written, including Mahler’s Symphony no. 1, Shostakovich's Symphony no. 10, Alpine Symphony, and Scheherazade. In addition, we support emerging composers with our upcoming call for scores and will welcome our first two guest conductors in spring 2026. 

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Audience accessibility is one of our core values, and all our orchestra concerts operate under a choose-what-you-pay ticket pricing structure for general admission, with student tickets completely free. We firmly believe that orchestra is for everyone and focus our marketing efforts and partnerships on attracting audiences who may not typically attend classical music concerts. The results have been successful; we have sold over seven hundred tickets to date from our two sold-out fall concerts.  

As a result, we do not profit from ticket sales and rely entirely on donations to operate the orchestra. Your support allows us to continue making incredible music and building our community of musicians and audience members. 100% of donations go directly to running our orchestra, including venue costs, score and instrument rentals, and section coaches. Contributors to our inaugural season will be credited as founding donors on our program and website. All donations are tax-deductible.  

Thank you for your consideration, and we hope to see you at one of our concerts! 

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With gratitude, 

NYC Orchestra Project