Brooklyn Heights has plenty of pretty churches, but only one of them has stained glass windows that literally don’t exist anywhere else on the continent. 🕯️
That’s St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, a Gothic Revival landmark that’s stood on the corner of Montague and Clinton Streets since 1847, and this fall it’s swapping its usual quiet for something a lot louder.
Thousands of candles are about to fill the sanctuary for a live string tribute to Coldplay and Imagine Dragons, and if the church’s last few Candlelight nights are any indication, this one’s going to sell out fast.
3 October 2026 20:45 + more dates
A church built for exactly this kind of moment
Long before it was hosting concerts, St. Ann’s was already something of an architectural legend.
Architect Minard Lafever designed the building in the 1840s, and most historians consider it the finest work of his career, good enough to earn the church National Historic Landmark status back in 1987.
Step inside and the first thing that hits you is the light.
William Jay Bolton’s stained glass windows, finished in 1848, are recognized as the first complete set of figural stained glass ever made in North America.
Every wall glows in deep reds and blues even on a gray afternoon, and once the candles are lit for a nighttime show, that color practically drips down the stone columns.
The congregation itself actually predates the building by decades, tracing back to 1787, which makes St. Ann’s one of the oldest Episcopal parishes in the entire borough.
What you’re actually walking into
Picture this: rows of flickering candles lining the aisles, a string quartet set up at the front where the altar usually sits, and that famous vaulted ceiling swallowing every note whole.
The show clocks in at 60 minutes, performed by the Highline String Quartet, and it’s built entirely around reimagining two decades of stadium-sized hits as something intimate enough to fit inside a 19th century sanctuary.
Think:
- “Clocks” and “Viva la Vida,” stripped down to just strings
- “The Scientist” and “Fix You,” which land even harder in a room built for hymns
- Imagine Dragons anthems rearranged for a quartet instead of a full band
- “Sky Full of Stars” and “Adventure of a Lifetime” closing things out
There’s something genuinely strange and wonderful about hearing “Fix You” swell up under a 175-year-old vaulted ceiling.
It’s not a concert in the traditional sense. It’s closer to a séance for pop music, staged inside one of the most historically significant rooms in the city.
The church also holds one of the largest unaltered E.M. Skinner organs in New York, and because the entire building was designed for congregational singing, the acoustics do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting on their own.
Grabbing a seat before it fills up
Shows are running on multiple dates starting October 3rd, with more added through the winter, so there’s some flexibility if your first choice date is already gone.
So far, all of the confirmed dates are: October 3, November 19, December 3, and February 19, 2027.
Tickets: Starting at less than $35 online here
Where: 157 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, an easy trip on the R train to Court Street or the B25/B26 bus
Duration: 60 minutes (doors open 45 minutes prior)