Early Music America offers awards of up to $2,500 annually to support engagement projects for children and/or adults by organizations, ensembles, and individual artists. The awards are intended to promote awareness and appreciation of early music and historical performance with the goal of drawing new audiences and participants.
2026 Engagement Award Recipients
- Academía Libre en Especialización Musical (ALEM), Mexico/Hybrid
- The Early Music Course at ALEM provides accessible, hybrid training in historically informed performance for students across Mexico and Latin America. The program combines individual instruction, theory classes, and ensemble performance, emphasizing Latin American and New Spain repertoires alongside European Baroque music. In 2026–27, ALEM will expand with new Baroque Opera and Baroque Orchestra programs, broadening opportunities for specialized study and performance.
- Baroque Music Montana, United States
- Baroque Music Montana will bring interactive Baroque music performances to rural Montana schools during its 2026–27 season, expanding arts access for K–12 students with limited opportunities to experience live music. Programs will feature performances, period instrument demonstrations, historical context, and Q&A sessions tailored to each school. By reducing geographic and economic barriers, the project fosters curiosity, connects students with history through music, and strengthens community engagement while inspiring future audiences across Montana.
- Coro y Orquesta del Manzano Jesuítico, Bolivia
- Sounds of La Plata trains members of Coro y Orquesta del Manzano Jesuítico in historically informed performance through archival study, Baroque performance workshops, and community concerts. Children will learn to read colonial manuscripts, explore period techniques, and present Sucre’s cathedral music to local audiences while explaining its historical significance. By connecting archival heritage with performance and education, the project preserves Bolivia’s musical legacy and inspires children to engage with early music as a living tradition.
- Research Group La improvisación dentro del aprendizaje de los estilos musicales, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia
- Improvising Style: Tools for Musical Fluency develops an open-access pedagogical model that uses improvisation to teach Renaissance and Baroque performance practice in Latin America. Created by the Universidad de Antioquia Research Group, the project integrates historical research with regional oral traditions through interactive digital tools, workshops, and experimentation. By emphasizing perception, internalization, and creation, it broadens access to historically informed performance and makes stylistic fluency a shared, inclusive musical practice.
- SaSa Sounds, United States/Hybrid
- Pluck Lot expands access to early music through interactive, hybrid programming led by SaSa Sounds in partnership with the Lute Society of America. The initiative includes a free online series, an ongoing blog, and Pluck Lot Fest 2027, combining performances, education, and community events. Serving audiences from first-time listeners to professionals, Pluck Lot reduces geographic and financial barriers while fostering meaningful connections, sustained participation, and broader engagement with historically informed performance.
Engagement includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Early-music activities that focus on children, in or out of school.
- Early-music activities in public and private schools.
- Lifelong learning courses on early music.
- Web, video, podcast, or other creative activities that advance public awareness and enjoyment of early music.
- Early-music activities that reach underserved audiences and populations and historically underfunded groups.
