Early Music is Flowering on Philly’s Main Line, and Beyond
For Early Music Month, we check out a historical performance scene that is taking off in the north Philadelphia suburbs of Main Line and Bucks County, with quality ensembles and venues perfect for early music.
250 Years Ago, a Black Composer Etched Anti-Racism into his Music
Likely born into slavery, working as a butler and shopkeeper, Ignatius Sancho became an accomplished writer and composer. Embedded in his published music, the author argues, are anti-racist ideals that rejected British cultural norms.
Reflections on Walking Black in the Field of Historical Performance
'The opportunity for me to dream, create, and follow a path that I expected would hold me in good stead was, frankly, fraught with challenges. What do you do when you have been taught to believe in your creative gift only to be discouraged in overt and subtle ways in the profession?'
Sphinx Performance Academy Taps Early Music
The Sphinx Performance Academy introduces Black and Latine students (age 11-17) to period instruments and historical performance in an intensive, two-week summer camp. EMA is assisting the project with scholarships and free memberships.
CANTO: Finding the Baroque in Carnatic Classical Music
European Baroque and Indian classical have freedom within structure. As a singer you have so much agency. You start with melodic brilliance, and then the singer makes their mark on the composition through their use of ornamentation.
Rethinking the Harpsichord: Lillian Gordis in Conversation
Lillian Gordis has garnered high praise for her imaginative and substantive performances and recordings. In a wide-ranging discussion, Gordis and Ramsay talk about her precocious drive to make music on the harpsichord.
Early to Rise: Multi-instrumentalist Peter Lim
Meet Peter Lim. In concert, he effortlessly switches between different families of instruments, from the harpsichord to Baroque oboe to recorders to the voice and more. A colleague calls him a 'once-in-a-generation talent'
How Goes Gesualdo?
In some repertoire, the gulf between singers and instrumentalists is narrowing. The author calls it 'among the more exciting developments in historical performance,' which might reshape our understanding of Italian Renaissance music.
Making a Parody of Bach, No Kidding
The so-called parody process requires a great deal of historical knowledge but also a willingness to fill in the gaps. Performer-composer Jessica Korotkin, a Baroque cellist, combines historical scholarship with her own ingenuity for a new set of Bach-inspired cello suites.
Conference Report: ‘Black and Indigenous Sounds in the Early Atlantic World’
Last month, scholars studying facets of early Black and indigenous sounds came together to share their research and ask a few big questions. Is this a new, interdisciplinary field of study, where sound is central to help understand life, culture, literature, and music?
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