Emerging Artists Showcase

Presenting the rising stars of early music and historical performance since 2018.

The Emerging Artists Showcase has been presented at early-music festivals in Berkeley, CA, Bloomington, IN, and Boston, MA, and virtually through EMA’s digital platforms. In 2023, the Showcase became a central element of the annual EMA Summit.

2024 Showcase: Cleveland

The 2024 Emerging Artists Showcase will be presented as the closing concert at 2024 EMA Summit in Cleveland, OH. The concert will take place the evening of Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

Three Showcase artists/ensembles will be selected. Each will present segment no longer than 25 minutes during the Showcase concert.

Selected Showcase artists will receive a Showcase grant up to $2,000 to assist with expenses.

All selected Showcase artists will receive free registration for the 2024 EMA Summit and will have access to the presentations, panels, workshops, exhibition, performances, and other networking opportunities as EMA gathers the early-music community together.

Guidelines for Application

All required materials MUST be submitted via the application form.

We strongly encourage all applicants to submit your application at least ONE WEEK prior to the deadline in case there are any issues with your application, so we can resolve them in a timely manner before the deadline.

Those selected for the Emerging Artists Showcase will be notified in late April 2024

2024 Showcase applications closed Monday, April 1 at 11:59pm ET.

Please submit questions to [email protected]

  • The applicant should be a current member of EMA, with either a Personal, Student, Household, or Organization membership prior to the application deadline. Please ensure your membership is current at the time of submission.
    • Student qualify for a one-time free memberships anytime during their course of students and students pay a reduced rate otherwise.
  • “Emerging Artists” means artists of any age who have not otherwise performed regularly in major festivals or concert series.
  • No individual performer may be included in more than one Emerging Artists Showcase application (e.g. Jane Smith is a member of Ensemble A and Ensemble B. Only one of the ensembles may apply with her as a member. Likewise, if Ensemble A applies, Jane may not apply separately).
  • All applicants must be residents of the USA, Canada, or Mexico. Citizenship not required.
  • Although the term “early music” is understood in different ways, for the purposes of this Showcase, it involves the following criteria:
    • Attention must be given to matters of historical performance practice.
    • Applicants are expected to perform with period instruments. Please inquire if the pandemic has limited your ability to access appropriate instruments for your repertoire
    • Past Showcase programs have typically featured repertoire composed before ca. 1820, however we welcome repertoire from later eras, so long as it meets the criteria above.
    • Applicants are strongly encouraged to propose programs that expand beyond the Western canon.
  • Artists who are a part of an ensemble under consideration for Young Performers Festival may apply separately for the Showcase, so-long as they or their ensemble are not university sponsored. University-sponsored applicants should apply only for the Young Performers Festival (YPF).

Ensemble/Performer Information

  • Artist/Ensemble Name
  • Names of all artists to be featured in your Showcase program.
  • How long has the Artist/Ensemble been performing? Please include information about a representative past ensemble project – description or concert program is acceptable.
  • Short soloist/ensemble bio (for promotional material)
  • Artist/Ensemble mission/relationship with historical performance and period instruments (as applicable).
  • Brief description of how your group is emerging and how you see your future in the early music field
  • Title and description of your proposed 25 minute Showcase program. (max. 500 words)
  • Are there any resources you may need to make your participation possible? (A harpsichord and/or positive organ will be available for performances. Requests for other instruments and/or technology will be considered on a case-by-case basis.)

Performance recordings that meet the following requirements:

  • Live video performance recordings of the applicant – MAXIMUM of 20 minutes in length.
  • Submitted performance recordings must be no more than two years old.
  • Submitted performance recordings should be of the highest video quality possible.
  • Video recordings should be shared as Youtube links – videos may either be public or unlisted.
  • Recordings can be multiple short selections or one long selection.
  • Please submit a list of personnel represented in your recordings, and a list of the pieces performed. Recordings should reflect, as much as possible, the personnel indicated in your program proposal, meaning that each person in the proposal should have be reflected in a submitted recording.
  • Submission recordings may be of your proposed program, but it is not required.

Showcase Grant Payment Details (one required)

  • Check (Payee name, contact phone, mailing address for check)
  • Paypal (Payee email)
  • Zelle (Payee phone number or email address associated with Zelle account. USA only.)

A panel of judges designated by EMA will assess all applications on the following three criteria categories.

  • Technical proficiency
    • Artistic quality
    • Ensemble cohesion/chamber music skills
    • Awareness of and attention to historical performance
  • Audience Engagement
    • How do you represent yourself as an artist?
    • How are you communicating the music beyond playing the notes in a historically informed way?
  • Innovation in presentation and/or repertoire
    • Creativity and originality using available resources
    • New and attainable ideas – is the size of the proposed project realistically attainable within the three month preparation and production period?
    • Are you conducting new research related to the project?
    • Feel free to consider a lecture component or a specific audience demographic focus. Lecture components should account for no more than 25% of the final project time. The focus should remain on the performance of the music.

Selections will be based on the strength of the proposal and the level of artistry displayed in recorded submissions.

All applications will receive feedback from the judging panel, regardless of the success of their application. Accepted ensembles may receive recommendations from the panel to be incorporated into their final product. 

2023 Showcase Artists

EMA congratulates the following artists were selected to perform in the 2024 Emerging Artists Showcase. The Showcase wase presented as the closing concert at 2023 EMA Summit in Boston at Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston, Thursday, October 26, 2023.

Marie Nadeau-Tremblay, violin

During the final session of her undergraduate degree in violin performance at McGill University, Marie Nadeau-Tremblay decided to try her hand at the Baroque. She joined the university’s Baroque orchestra and fell head over heels in love! Transported by the beauty of this music— and finding resonance with its mode of expression— she decided to plunge headfirst into the Baroque world. After obtaining a Licentiate Degree, she pursued further studies, receiving a Master’s Degree in Early Music Performance. In 2019, she swept the honor roll of the Concours de musique ancienne Mathieu Duguay with an unprecedented four awards: First Prize, the People’s Choice Award, the Festival Montréal Baroque Prize, and the Été musical de Barachois Prize. Named “CBC’s Classical Revelation 2021-2022” and winner of the 2021 Opus prize for “Discovery of the year”, Marie is also awarded the Choquette Symcox prize by the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada the same year. Marie plays on an original 1750s Thomas Perry instrument as well as an Amati model violin made by Timothy Johnson and generously lent to her by Mr Jacques Marchand.

The Fooles

Performing together since 2020, The Fooles is a young, enthusiastic 17th-century Italian string band that believes in the power of underutilized historical techniques to bring repertoire from the birth of instrumental music back to life for the modern day. The ensemble gets its name from a marking in a Vivaldi concerto made by Pisendel, the work’s copyist, who says that the numbers used in realizing a continuo part are only needed by ‘the fools’. Today, long after the baroque musical traditions have been lost to history, we recognize the intense work that must be done to overcome our historical disadvantage in performing this repertoire. In this sense, the name is tongue-in-cheek, as the group actively works to avoid being foolish in this manner. Its members, who met and formed while students at The Juilliard School, are deeply interested in the scholarly research of all aspects of music, art, and society in early modern Europe, and perform regularly across the United States and Europe on various historical repertoires and instruments from the Renaissance to the modern day. The Fooles strive to challenge their modern musical upbringings and reframe their understanding of early music to go beyond a superficial understanding of the repertoire they play.

The Fooles:
Clara Abel
Alyssa Campbell
Nicola Canzano
Ryan Cheng
Tsutomu William Copeland
Andrew Koutroubas
John Stajduhar

Maryse Legault, clarinet

accompanied by Gili Loftus, fortepiano

Maryse Legault received her master’s degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag in June 2017, specializing in historical clarinet performance in the studio of Eric Hoeprich. She has performed with many of the world’s leading period-instrument ensembles, including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Siècles and MusicAeterna. One of the only Canadian women performing on period clarinets, she has been recognized for her impressive finger technique challenging historical performance standards, her daring choices of repertoire, as well as the flexibility and expressiveness of her interpretations. Maryse is recipient of a prize from the Sylva-Gelber Music Foundation and was awarded the Joseph-Armand-Bombardier research fellowship.

Award winning keyboardist, Gili Loftus’ three-fold expertise on the fortepiano, modern piano and harpsichord lend her playing a character that is unique to her, and which has opened up new and exciting paths for artistic and historical exploration which she has been invited to share through her performances and lectures on both sides of the Atlantic.

Previous Showcase Artists

2022 – Berkeley Festival & Exhibition and Virtual

AKOYA
Julia Bengtsson & Rocío López Sánchez
Duo Oriana
Patricía García Gil
Pauline Kempf
Ximenez Quartet

2021 – Virtual

Beneath a Tree – Baroque to Folk
Alice Chuaqui Baldwin
Filament Baroque
Monika Ruusma & Héctor Alonso Torres
Time Stands Still

2020 – Virtual

L.A. Camerata
Gili Loftus
Lyracle
Trobár

2019 – Bloomington Early Music Festival

Aperi Animam
Joyce Chen
Vincent Lauzer
Rezonance Baroque

2018 – Bloomington Early Music Festival

Costanoan Trio
Melisande McNabey
Adriana Ruiz Peña
Rumore Terribile
Voyage Sonique
Rachell Ellen Wong

Showcase Performances

2022 Showcase – Virtual & Berkeley, CA
2021 Showcase – Virtual
2020 Showcase – Virtual
2019 Showcase – Bloomington, IN
2018 Showcase – Bloomington, IN
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