To celebrate Early Music Month, EMA recognizes outstanding community engagement projects of individuals and organizations that take place in March. Early Music Month Mini-Grants support selected creative projects with supplemental funding.
Mini-Grant Details
Mini-grants of $500 will be awarded for projects to be held in North America during Early Music Month in March of each year. Successful projects will seek to expand the reach of early music in your community. EMA welcomes and encourages creative proposals for in-person virtual, and hybrid events. The application is open to EMA members and non-members.
EMM Mini-Grant Recipients are expected to submit high-resolution photos and/or video of their project activities and a brief written reflection on the impact of the project no later than April 30. Submission of the application form constitutes acknowledgement of these requirements.
JUDGING CRITERA:
Mini-grant applications will be assess based on the following criteria:
-Impact of project: Does the project reach groups/communities with limited opportunities to engage with early music?
-Impact of award: Will funds from EMA make a difference in the ability of this project to take place?
-Creativity: Is the project innovative and engaging?
-Artistic excellence: Does the individual or group have a reputation for performing early music at a high level?
-Capacity: Has the individual or group shown prior success in engagement activities?
TIMELINE:
Applications are available from November to mid-January of each year.
Recipients are notified in late January and funds dispersed in early February.
Projects must take place in March and written reflections are due no later than April 30
Questions about the application process can be submitted through the EMA contact form.
The 2024 application period is now closed. Please check back in December 2024.
Questions about the application process can be submitted through the EMA contact form.
2024 Mini-Grants
Early Music America is pleased to award the following ensembles and organizations Early Music Month Mini-Grants for projects to be held during March 2024. The judges where impressed by the scope of these proposals and their potential to expand the reach of early music. We look forward to sharing more about these projects as they occur throughout Early Music Month.
Grantees
Early Music City (Nashville, TN)
Project: Young People’s Guide to Early Music
This interactive outreach program ignites imagination, sparks curiosity, and unveils the captivating sounds of the past while integrating narrative and concepts from Black and Brown communities. This is not your mama’s early music – it’s a time-traveling adventure for young minds. Young People’s Guide to Early Music promises to open doors to a world of hidden musical treasures, igniting young minds with the magic of historical sounds and fostering a lifelong love for music in all its forms. The intended is audience is ages 8-14, at Salama Urban Ministries in Nashvhille.
Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra (Indianapolis, Carmel, and Greenwood, IN)
Project: Growing Up Baroque
The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra’s annual children’s and family education program, Growing Up
Baroque!, returns to its highly successful musical storytime format in 2024. As the program falls on St.
Patrick’s Day weekend, IBO musician and multi-instrument specialist Keith Collins has curated a short
program of Irish Baroque and folk music to accompany a beloved children’s book. In addition to presenting music, the quintet of musicians will introduce their instruments and their special features to the audience. At the end of the program, audience members are welcome and encouraged to meet the musicians and instruments up-close, providing an opportunity for questions and personal interaction. The intended audience of Growing Up Baroque is children ages 4-10 and their families.
Modos Collective (Mexico City, Mexico)
Project: Medieval Music in Mexico City
This project aims to enroot and disseminate Medieval music practice at different levels of
professionalization in Mexico City area. Although early-music practice has already a long history in
Mexico, Medieval music is very scarcely represented, and very few ensembles are dedicated to this
repertoire. The projects stems from the premise that European Medieval musical traditions, either vocal or
instrumental, and in particular secular music, are closer to contemporary sensibilities. Therefore they can
serve as a good introduction to Early Music to whom is not familiar with it, as much as they can enlarge
already formed Early Musicians’s possibilities.
Seicento Baroque (Boulder, Golden, Longmont, and Lafayette, CO)
Project: Embellish!
Embellish! examines the similarities in Baroque music and jazz. Most people are aware of the vital role of
improvisation in jazz. Fewer are aware that Baroque music is not completely written out on the page and
requires singers and instrumentalists to execute ornamentation and continuo players to realize figured
bass. Embellish! performances will explore these similarities, combining Seicento’s instrumentalists, choral and solo singers in four distinct events: 1) a creative workshop on improvisation for non-musicians, 2) a workshop on musical improvisation for performers of all levels 3) an 8-week training program for four adult apprentice artists, and 4) two public concerts
Whidbey Island Music Festival (Coupeville, WA)
Project: Coupeville Schools outreach concerts with Island County Big Brothers and Big Sisters
Musicians from the Whidbey Island Music Festival will visit Coupeville elementary and high school for 2
scheduled presentations and performances celebrating Early Music Month in March and April 2024. Tekla
Cunningham, baroque violin and festival director will play along side Riley Patching (a high school baroque bassoonist and graduate and participant in Seattle Historical Arts For Kids) and Troy Chapman (a lutenist and gypsy jazz legend on Whidbey). These school visits follow a successful partnership with Island Big Brothers and Big Sisters in August 2024 where WIMF presented a free outreach concert for children and families at a local farm just north of Coupeville, Whidbey Farm and Market.
Previous Recipients
2023
- Early Music Missouri / St. Louis, MO – Suzuki meets Early Music
- Ensemble 126 / Salt Lake City, American Fork, Ephraim, and Cedar City, Utah – Utah Tour
- Musicians of the Old Post Road / Hudson, MA – Outreach Presentation for Hudson High Music Students
- Wyoming Baroque / Sheridan, WY – Early Music Class at Sheridan College
2022
- Camerata XXXI / Tijuana, Baja California
- Concordian Dawn / New York, NY & San Francisco, CA
- Eudaimonia, A Purposeful Period Band / Somerville & Maynard, MA
- Forgotten Clefs / Bloomington & South-Central, IN
- La Grande Bande / Davenport, IA
- L.A. Camerata / Los Angeles, CA
- The Mirandola Ensemble / Minneapolis, MN
- The New York Baroque Dance Company / Ithaca, NY
- Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble / Cambridge, MA
- Seattle Historical Arts for Kids / Virtual
- Tempesta di Mare / Philadelphia, PA
- Trobár / Cleveland, OH
2021
No grants awarded due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
2020
- Alkemie Early Music Ensemble – “Alkemie & Friends” – a series of informal, musically experimental, and multi-sensory concerts in non-traditional venues.
- Baroque Viola Society of Cambridge – a performance to promote cultural diversity, the art of Early Music, and to initiate a partnership with the Center for Arabic Culture
- Early Music City – present an interactive program for young students at Salama Urban Ministry
- JANUS Ensemble – inaugural performance at Enroot Education Organization for Immigrant Students
- La Donna Musicale – to help fund performances, lectures, and outreach efforts of the music of the Early Music woman composer, Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720-1795)
- Los Angeles Baroque – a community orchestra exchange program with Kensington Baroque Orchestra (San Diego)
- Savannah Baroque – to participate in the Rice Creek School’s “Exceptionally Musical” evening.
- Sunderland Elementary School Advanced Recorder Club – “Recorder Club Mini-tour 2020”
2019
- Los Goytx, Simi Valley, CA – to present an educational program of early wind instruments at Simi Valley Middle School .
- The Harper and The Minstrel, Miami, FL – to present early music education program with the Miami Music Project
- Sarah Huebsch Schilling, Richmond, VA – to present “Reeds of the Past” bringing 200 years of woodwind history to Richmond high school band programs.
- Great Basin Baroque, Salt Lake City, UT – to collaborate with the Salt Lake City Public Library to bring historically-informed performance to the community for free.
- Sprezzatura, El Paso, TX – to establish a series of early music events at local public libraries.
- Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Kansas City, MO – to present “Swirls, Twirls, Stomps and Curls. The ins and outs of Baroque style.” a performance and interactive workshop with students participating in the Harmony Project KC.
- Burning River Baroque, Cleveland Heights, OH – to present “The Other Side of the Story: Untold Perspectives on Familiar Tales” in a series of eight concerts during March at a variety of music venues from house concerts to an inner-city warehouse.
- Dr. Ka-Wai Yu, St. George, UT – to help fund a performance, masterclass, and outreach projects at Dixie State University
