EMA News Features & Press Releases

Meet Nuova Pratica, a stylish ensemble with a progressive-retro attitude. They reject the notion that everything's already been said in the Baroque language. By re-opening the book on Baroque composition, their new works are at turns fresh, varied, and imaginative.

The innovative, cross-cultural work of Salamone Rossi, a Jewish musician at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, has long stirred controversy and strong opinion. The Bay Area's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform Rossi's 1623 'Songs of Solomon,' a set of Psalm settings in Hebrew in the Italian polyphonic style.

With the season in full swing and the holidays fast approaching, it's a good time to revisit one of the most-read EMA stories of 2023. First published in January, it's a top-10 list of "home stay" dos and don'ts. An early-music host shares his tips for making a home stay easy and low-stress for everyone. Share it with anyone who invites musicians into their house...and traveling musicians will be grateful.

A thank you from EMA executive director, David McCormick.

New York City's TENET Vocal Artists is devoting its 15th season to music by, for, and about women. It’s not to suggest that men are not important, says TENET founder Jolle Greenleaf. Instead, 'it’s to ask what changes in the sound, in the dynamics, and how do we interact with each other.'

'The basic idea is to take classical music from the concert halls and bring it into the communities, but on the community’s own terms: music in their language, music they identify with, music that includes them in the artistic process by enabling them to tell their own stories.'

If medieval music is thriving in the U.S., why is it not on my radar? writes Judith Malafronte. Can early-music ensembles convincingly present music from the 12th to the 18th centuries, or do performers need to narrow their focus and cultivate a special audience? Is it smart to market the Ars subtilior repertoire to the Bach and Vivaldi crowd?

Reflections from a whirlwind summer of singing and travel: “It’s hard to be an 'emerging artist.' Even though I’m working more each season, my calendar is a patchwork of jobs I’m constantly worrying over. The upshot of being young and ambitious is that my schedule is more flexible than established artists...so when last-minute opportunities come up, I can often say yes. Still, it’s hard to know what work to accept.”

A Q&A with Music Before 1800's new artistic director Bill Barclay: 'If people are going to take a risk of coming to a concert for the first time, they need something to hold on to'... it's 'sadly a bit of an exclusionary pleasure — you have to know a little bit to get a lot out of it, unless there’s something that resonates and makes people understand that early musicians are arbiters of ancient insights into human performance.'

Congratulations to this year’s Annual Awards recipients selected by the EMA Board of Directors based on nominations submitted by colleagues throughout the early-music community.