EMA FEATURES & PRESS RELEASES
Repertoire Is a Labor Issue
An early-music field with a desire to sustain specialists — and, notably, to keep its academic programs in existence — must treat repertoire planning as a labor issue, not just an artistic one.
Seattle’s Building Boom
After pandemic stumbles and closures, a few key leaders are recharging Seattle's early-music landscape with a home-grown, artist-led business model. 'I think people have had enough of consuming art online. They want in-person experiences again.'
Training the Compleat Musician
New England Conservatory's Pratt Early Music Program aims to teach historical performance practice to "modern" instrumentalists and to populate symphony orchestras in the future. As collegiate early-music education is facing budget cuts across the country, the Pratt Program shows a way forward — with dedicated funding.
Outreach is Not Education
People who care about the future of historical performance often don’t understand how to reach and retain young people. This essay is a call to action for the field of historical performance to support educational work.
submit a story idea to EMA
EMA RECORDING & BOOK REVIEWS
Byrd in Conversation with the Italians
William Byrd was influenced by Italian madrigals and sacred choral music as well as the colorful keyboard music from Venice. British keyboardist Freddie James puts the English composer in a lively dialogue with the Italian Renaissance, often with hair-raising results.
Bruce Dickey and Friends Find Unique Styles from Milan
The canzon-mottetto, a 17th-c. Milanese genre, is a hybrid work that alternates, then combines, an a cappella motet with an instrumental canzona until it becomes a double-choir motet in which one choir sings, the other plays. The Breathtaking Collective and Cappella Mariana join for an inspired exploration of this delightful repertoire.
A Powerful B-minor Mass from Apollo’s Fire
Apollo's Fire, led by Jeannette Sorrell, has just released possibly the best available small-sized period-instrument recording of Bach's B-minor Mass. This is thanks to their vision of Bach’s concept of the Mass as a whole with nothing amiss: correct choices of tempi, balances of orchestra, chorus, and solo voices.
Soundscapes of the Holy Land
'Christian Music in Jerusalem' is a notable introduction to a subject that has been largely shrouded in obscurity, a historical blank into which we project our own preconceptions. Author Alexander Rosenblatt helps to dispel some of this fog through an ethnomusicological examination — involving Christian, Jewish, and Arab music — of traditions that continue to exist in the Holy Land today.
submit a book or CD for consideration
COMMUNITY NEWS & PRESS RELEASES
(IRVINE, CA, OCTOBER 15, 2026)—The Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Soka Performing Arts Center present flutist Emi Ferguson with baroque band, Ruckus, Saturday, November 21, 2026 at 8pm at ...
The Cambridge Society for Early Music (CSEM) announces the first concert weekend of its 2026-27 Season, which marks the debut of Trio Langostino, bringing together celebrated musicians Cynthia Roberts (violin), ...
If you’ve ever been interested in ancient Greek music, join Barnaby Brown for 4 days exploring the aulos – a double reedpipe that led worship and drama throughout the Greek ...
For Immediate Release November 2, 2026 PRESS CONTACT Joanna Boyle, General Manager Musicians of the Old Post Road 781.466.6694 musicians@oldpostroad.org PHOTOS https://oldpostroad.org/press-room MUSICIANS OF THE OLD POST ROAD presents Christmas ...
Alkemie opens our 13th season with album release shows for “A Worthy Mirror.” This project represents a time-traveling dialogue with the 12th-century trobairitz—the feminine counterpart of the poet-composers known as ...
