America’s flagship classical venue since 1891, Carnegie Hall is where musical history has been made again and again, from the world premiere of Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony to the moment when The Beatles broke America. This fabled midtown hall—surprisingly unassuming from the street—is as much part of New York as Grand Central Station. Saved from demolition in the 1950s, it now houses three performance venues, with programs ranging from chamber music and jazz to the world’s greatest orchestras.

Just call it the Met: everyone else does! With its soaring concrete arches and 36-foot-tall Marc Chagall murals, this Upper West Side theater—the focal point of Lincoln Center—is a New York City institution and North America’s leading opera house. Mahler, Zeffirelli, Jessye Norman, and Pavarotti are all part of the history of the resident Metropolitan Opera company; today, it’s synonymous with superstar casts and no-expense-spared productions. A seriously classy night out.

With multiple venues (and schools, including the Juilliard and Fordham), there’s a lot going on around the famed Revson Fountain (of Ghostbusters fame). The New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet are all in residence at this stylish ’60s arts center, but if you want to live like an Upper West Side local, grab a coffee and stroll through Damrosch Park to check out the Guggenheim Bandshell and its rotating list of festivals.

Formerly Avery Fisher Hall, David Geffen Hall is the main classical concert venue at Lincoln Center, and its Wu Tsai Theater is home to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. But through its Great Performers series, Geffen Hall often features visiting international orchestras, and has also hosted Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. You can catch a free show at the Griffin Sidewalk Studio or pass the time with the exhibitions (and free Wi-Fi) in the public lobby.

This thriving arts and culture hub, situated on the border of Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn, has something for everyone: film buffs, opera fans, stand-up comics, and even budding creatives (or ‘BAMkids’). With an emphasis on global music and dance, it’s the sort of busy, multi-purpose arts space where distinguished authors, composers, choreographers, and playwrights (Gloria Steinem, Hannah Gadsby, Zadie Smith) come to discuss—or premiere—their latest works.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this Upper East Side landmark is both a monument to 20th-century art and a thriving performance space. The museum collaborates with the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet on cross-art-form projects designed to complement the museum’s collection. They’re ticketed separately from standard museum entry, but a stroll up the famous spiral to view artworks by Kandinsky, Klee, and Picasso is worth anyone’s time.

The grand personal library of financier J.P Morgan (yes, that J.P. Morgan), this Murray Hill gem is a world-class archive of manuscripts and books. It has not one, but three copies of the Gutenberg Bible, as well as manuscripts by Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner. Although primarily a research center and museum, it’s also a unique performance space, offering chamber music, classical song and piano recitals in the stylish Gilder Lehrman Hall.

A red-bricked behemoth on the Upper East Side, the Armory was originally the headquarters of the elite 7th New York Militia (known as the ‘Silk Stocking Regiment’). The sumptuous wood-paneled Board of Officers Room is fast becoming one of New York’s most characterful chamber music venues, with appearances from Cédric Tiberghien, Pavel Kolesnikov, and Jonas Kaufmann. But the programming is broad: Come for multimedia projects, performance art events, and contemporary opera productions, too.

With the name Kaufman in bright lights in front of a lava-red lobby, you can’t miss this lively arts center on the Upper West Side. Its specialist music schools give the Center a lively, casual atmosphere, but its main theater, Merkin Hall, is quite sophisticated and has near-perfect acoustics. It’s a great place to hear young chamber groups and sparky early- and new-music ensembles, with a strong showing for emerging and established musical theater stars.

You might imagine that an old working boat under the Brooklyn Bridge is a place for industrial noise, not piano sonatas, but Bargemusic breaks all the rules. This former coffee barge was transformed into a concert hall by violinist Olga Bloom, and it’s a quirky (but very fine) venue for chamber music. The artistic director, pianist Mark Peskanov, often performs in the Masterworks Series, and there are free afternoon concerts, too. Be warned: There are no bathrooms on board, so plan accordingly.