Archives: EMAg Feature Article

A recent press trip to Israel piqued my interest in that fascinating country’s early-music scene. Israel is at once ancient and new, like so much of what we are trying to do in our field, and I was curious about the history of the early-music revival, the active and retired performers and teachers, and the […]

The admired a cappella ensemble bids the world farewell after three decades of radiant artistry. Sunday morning, August 3, 1986. The Upper West Side of Manhattan had been deserted by anyone who could get away, and not many showed up on West 99th Street at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, where four of us—two choir members

Conductors with roots in early music are taking their expertise to symphony orchestras. There was a time, not so long ago, when modern performers tended to be wary of the early-music movement. Often, these two musical communities stood with their backs to each other, separated by a chilly silence. And occasionally a war of words

Many people think a peace treaty was signed after the vibrato wars of the 1970s, when the plush string textures of the modern symphony orchestra were challenged by the leaner sound of historical instruments. Eliminating vibrato, along with playing on gut strings, was the most noticeable mark of historically informed performance style. Before it was even called HIP, employing “authentic instruments” set early-music players apart from symphony orchestras, and singing with a pristine, boy-like sound marked a new vocal coloring.

The peripatetic and exhausting and fascinating and insanely fulfilling life of an early musician in America.