Early Music News & Reviews

Julia Bengtsson has found her footing as an acclaimed dancer, choreographer, and unstoppable entrepreneur. At the 2025 EMA Virtual Summit, Oct. 18, Bengtsson will co-present 'Anatomy of a Dance,' demonstrating connections between music and dance, followed by a brief performance.

From the Publications Director: 'There’s an old joke about the social sciences where the exam questions are the same year after year but it’s the correct answers that change. The early-music field isn’t so different, where there’s a fundamental ambition — how did it sound when it was new? — but the ways in which that’s presented, and how it comes across for the listener, seem to change with each generation.'

A new period-instrument ensemble, Chicago's Bach in the City, opens its inaugural season next week. Artistic leaders Richard Webster and Jason Moy, veterans of the Chicago classical scene, have secured dedicated funding to give the group staying power. 'Suddenly, now, we have a critical mass of period-instrument players attracted to Chicago, and that was not true a decade ago.'

Four Japanese boys, students at a Jesuit missionary school in the 1580s, were sent on an eight-year tour of Europe. Tracing this fascinating but fraught history for a concert program meant accepting a host of practical, historical, and ethical challenges.