Celebrating leaders in the early music community.
Thomas Binkley Award
This award honors individuals who, in their roles as leaders of collegiate early-music ensembles, have made outstanding contributions to the study and performance of early music.
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.
More about the Binkley Award
Howard Mayer Brown Award
For lifetime achievement in the field of early music
Named in memory of the renowned and beloved musicologist from the University of Chicago, Howard Mayer Brown. Brown’s scholarship covered a wide range of subjects. He published on the music of the Renaissance, especially the chanson and instrumental music, and frequently returned to problems in historical performance practice, a subfield in which he was one of the most important commentators.
More about the Brown Award
Laurette Goldberg Award
For 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.
Joan Benson Clavichord Award
For a current outstanding American clavichord artist, teacher, researcher, composer, clavichord maker or organizer of clavichord symposiums, master classes or sessions for children.
Named for the distinguished keyboardist Joan Benson, the intention of this award is to show the significance of soft, tender tones through the clavichord. The awardee will have awakened a vivid appreciation for this delicate keyboard instrument and shown its unique ability to express music through delicate, dynamic-rich, highly-nuanced sounds.
*A voluntary selection committee nominated by Joan Benson will choose the recipient of the Benson Clavichord Award.