EMA News Features & Press Releases

Last week, on Friday the 13th, New York's Music Before 1800 hosted the U.S. premiere of 'Death of Gesualdo,' a ghostly retelling of the Renaissance composer's life and grisly crimes, set to his avant-garde music. Performed by puppets, actors, and the British vocal ensemble the Gesualdo Six, the show is the latest from Bill Barclay, whose 'Secret Byrd' was a revelation for putting ancient music in a profoundly living context.

The Sigal Music Museum, in South Carolina, is the only such public collection in the South and includes the oldest-known piano, from the 1770s, that was commercially build and sold in the nascent United States. With performances from its collection and substantive lectures on historical instruments, the Sigal is a treasure trove of musical history.

The Yudah School of Music, just a year old, offers free tuition for all its students, mostly Black and Latino elementary- and middle-schoolers. Late last year, Yudah founder Rasháwn King brought together students and professionals for a 'Messiah' with a historically informed approach. Along the way, he's challenging 'what it’s supposed to be, who’s supposed to play it.'

With more shows on its calendar and looking for new (and possibly younger) dancers, the New York Baroque Dance Co. put out an audition call. Experience in Baroque style was a plus, but not a requirement. At the same time, the 50-year-old company started weekly technique classes to keep their dancers in peak form. These two components are coming together as Baroque dance continues to expand.

For many of us, Christmas is past, as is New Year’s. But celebrations ought to continue with the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, which commemorates the arrival of the Magi to the manger, giving a few extra days of revelry. Another major feast is Feb. 2: Candlemas. Preparing for a concert, New York's A Golden Wire looks at the richness of music for the full holiday season.

One click at a time, readers picked the most popular EMA online stories of the past 12 months. It’s worth noting the broad range of this year’s list, from artificial intelligence and early-music education to church-bell ringers, English country dance, and a singer’s personal take on seeing representation (and being that representation) on stage.

A music-theater cabaret — reimagining a 1970s fantasy on gay freedoms in a society not ready to accept it — premiered in Europe to acclaim and just arrived in New York. Baroque instruments help create a soundworld where, 'paradoxically, historical instruments bring a quality of timelessness.'

Looking for ancient voices from his native Ecuador, Felipe Ledesma Núñez turned to ceramics and the sounds of his ancestors. He sees a problem in the humanities, 'that we are privileging the written word. And those kinds of systems are ill-suited: They cannot carry sound.'

'I was fresh out of grad school and desperately trying to make it as a freelance singer. I had patched together part-time arts administration and hustling. I was auditioning, taking miserable gigs, and commuting up to three hours...I was doing so much more than a 9-to-5, and yet, people still asked what my "real" job was...'

Baroque violinist Danqi Zeng, born in China and currently a doctoral student at Indiana Univ., won the 2025 Barbash J.S. Bach Competition. The prize includes $10,000 and at least five concert engagements in the coming seasons. 'Zeng's Bach spoke profoundly,' remarked one juror, 'and with an immediacy made more palpable by the unforced resonance of her Baroque instrument.'