Annual Awards

Congratulations to this year’s EMA Annual Award winners, Lyle Nordstrom, Eric Rice, and Nina Stern/S’Cool Sounds for their achievements in the early music field. Please find their bios underneath each award description below. 

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Thomas Binkley Award

Eric Rice is the 2019 recipient of the Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college early music ensemble. This award is named for the legendary lutenist and educator Thomas Binkley, who taught at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, made ground-breaking recordings with the Studio der Frühen Musik, and served as founding director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in both performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college collegium musicum.

“I am deeply honored to receive Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award. Robert Greenlee, who introduced me to the richness of early repertory at Bowdoin College, was a student of Binkley’s, and so in some ways, the gratitude I feel for entering a field that has given me so much joy is due to Binkley as well. I am grateful to my colleagues at the University of Connecticut and in Ensemble Origo, particularly Mary Gerbi, who has shouldered many a logistical burden for me. I am also extremely grateful to my students, whose hard work and advocacy for the repertory and their ensemble is an inspiration.” -Eric Rice

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PAST RECIPIENTS

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Howard Mayer Brown Award

Lyle Nordstrom is the 2018 recipient of the Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in the field of early music. This award is named in memory of the renowned and beloved musicologist from the University of Chicago, Howard Mayer Brown.

During his 56 years of performing early music, Lyle’s thrust has always been as a strong advocate and teacher of this music. Leading people into the workings and joys of this music, both as performers and listeners, has brought a great satisfaction to him and his wonderful wife, Patricia, who has been performing and facilitating at every stage along the way.

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Laurette Goldberg Award

Nina Stern and S’Cool Sounds are the 2019 recipients of the Laurette Goldberg Award for lifetime achievement in early music outreach. Named for teacher, performer, author, and musical innovator Laurette Goldberg, this award recognizes ongoing, outstanding achievement in educational or outreach endeavors by individual performers, teaching artists, or ensembles. With the Laurette Goldberg Award, EMA celebrates work that draws new audiences or practitioners, or engages such communities in a new manner; that achieves remarkable breadth or depth of reach, seen in numbers of people engaged or in hours of engagement; and that stands to leave a lasting mark on the historical performance field, by transforming the communities served or by modeling practices that can be replicated and developed by others in the profession.

“What began as a vision is now a community that believes in social connectedness, in stimulating creativity and imagination, and in giving the gift of music. By making music together we tell our stories and listen closely to the stories of people around us and far away – communicating and connecting in a way that is more important than ever.”
-Nina Stern

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Early Music Brings History Alive Award (1998-2006)

This award acknowledged the importance of educational outreach in early music, and exposing the next generation to its delights and wonders.

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Please complete the form below to enter a nomination for an EMA Annual award in 2020. Deadline for nominations is December 31, 2019.