Early Music America offers awards of up to $1,500 annually to support outreach projects for children and/or adults by organizations, ensembles, and individual artists. The awards are intended to promote awareness and appreciation of early music and historical performance with the goal drawing new audiences and participants.
Engagement includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Early-music activities that focus on children, in or out of school.
- Early-music activities in public and private schools.
- Lifelong learning courses on early music.
- Web, video, podcast, or other creative activities that advance public awareness and enjoyment of early music.
- Early-music activities that reach underserved audiences and populations and historically underfunded racial or ethnic identity groups, especially African-American, Asian-American, Latinx, and Indigenous communities.
Eligibility, Required Materials, and Application Instructions available below.
The application period is March to mid-April each year.
Funded projects may take place beginning July of the award year through June of the following year.
2022 Recipients
Kasia Bielak-Hoops, Ypsilanti, MI
To support Vó·ce Veläta‘s collaboration with bassist and composer and latest winner of the Sphinx competition, Kebra-Seyoun Charles, furthering their mission to highlight underrepresented black artists and composers. Kebra and Vó·ce Veläta will present a neo-baroque choral and chaconne inspired by Bach as well as an adaptation of a Negro spiritual.
Jonathon Hampton, Washington, D.C.
To support conductor and singer Jonathon Hampton in teaching Washington, DC-area high school students of color the early-music tradition of singing negro spirituals, which developed in the United States throughout the Baroque period. With the teaching of sight-reading as a through-line, Hampton will share the history, music theory, call-and-response ear-training and vocal techniques of this African-American repertoire.
Vikram Joshi, Moorestown, NJ
To incorporate an early-music concert showcasing talented middle- and upper-school musicians in the Mooretown, NJ and Philadelphia, PA areas into the West Jersey Chamber Music Society’s 2022-23 season.
Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble, Cambridge, MA
To support “Re-discovering Historical Role Models in Music (and the Arts).” With “Female Torchbearers of the Baroque,” Sarasa aims to open a dialogue with Middle School students at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA, inviting them to discover role models they may have never known existed.
Sonido Barroco San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
To support “Terra Antiqua, Terra Nova (Old World, New World)” which will showcase the music of JS Bach alongside lesser known composers like Ignacio de Jerusalem. Jerusalem highlights the classical music activities happening in the New World in Mexico and his collaboration with Latino and indigenous peoples in Mexico. It is Sonido Barroco San Antonio’s aim to bring more music that occurred in North America to San Antonio audiences.
Past Engagement Award Recipients (2011-present)
2020-21
No Awards Given
2019
The Brandenburg Project
Burning River Baroque
Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble
Arkansas Baroque Music, Inc.
2018
Les Délices
Forgotten Clefs
Savannah Baroque
S’Cool Sounds
2017
Ars Musica Chicago
Bach Around the Clock
Early Music Associates
Seattle Historical Arts for Kids
Singen und Sagen
2016
Blue Hill Bach
Carol Lewis
Catacoustic Consort
Polyhymnia
Special Music School
2015
Belladonna
Early Music in Motion
Julie Elhard
Les Canards Chantants
Pegasus Rising
2014
Filigree Baroque
Lycoming Baroque Choir and Orchestra (formerly Billtown Baroque)
Salish Sea Players
Three Notch’d Road
World of Harpsichord
2013
The Connecticut Early Music Society
Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble
2012
Ars Lyrica Houston
Echoing Air
Jessica Powell and the Capitol Consort of Viols
MYSO (Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra) Baroque Players
The Rose Ensemble
2011
Catacoustic Consort
Jessica Powell and the Capitol Consort of Viols
Lisa Terry
Seattle Historical Arts for Kids
College-Level Development Grant (2011-2017)
From 2011 to 2017 Early Music America offered grants annually to college or university Early Music Ensembles to support a specific project or event that will enrich or broaden the educational experience of the students, and/or help to elevate the profile of such ensembles on campus, in their community or nationally.
2017
Reed College Collegium Musicum
2016
Case-Western Reserve University Baroque Chamber and Dance Ensembles
Texas Tech University Early Music Ensemble
2015
University of Oregon Collegium Musicum
2014
CWRU Baroque Music and Dance Ensembles
Cornell Baroque Orchestra
2013
Rutgers Mason Gross School for the Arts
Western Michigan University Collegium Musicum
2012
Metropolitan State College of Denver Early Music Ensemble
St. Olaf Early Music Singers and Collegium Musicum
2011
The University of Texas at Austin Early Music Ensemble