Early Music America

05/23/2026

EMA invites nominations for the 2026 Annual Awards for outstanding achievement and leadership in early music and historical performance practice.

Thomas Binkley 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.

Howard Mayer Brown Award: Recognizes lifetime achievement in the field of early music.

Laurette Goldberg Award: Recognizes achievement in community engagement.

Nominations are welcome through Sunday, June 7, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT.
earlymusicamerica.org/annual-awards

05/21/2026

Advertise in EMAg, the Magazine of Early Music America, the only English-langauge magazine devoted to early music!
The advertisement reservation deadline for the September 2026 issue is July 25.

Learn more and reserve your space at earlymusicamerica.org/advertise

05/21/2026

As historically informed musicians know, a performance conveys much more than just the notes on a page. ‘Performing by the Book,’ a recent collection of essays, covers an enormous temporal range — not exhaustive, of course, but by moving from the 15th century to the 21st it yields interesting comparisons.

Read the review of "Performing by the Book? Musical Negotiations between Text and Act," edited by Bruno Forment, at the link in the comments👇️

05/20/2026

The rise of public concerts in the 1720s and ’30s was in indicator of social innovations that would come to the fore during the American Revolution. Remarkably, colonial America produced musicians and paying audiences needed for public concerts not long after the trend started in Europe. But not everyone on our shores approved.

Read more of Sophie Genevieve Lowe's feature from the January 2026 issue of EMAg, the magazine of Early Music America, at the link in the comments 👇️

05/19/2026

If you missed last Saturday’s American250 Mini-Summit, or want to rewatch, you can catch up on the four fantastic sessions by viewing the recordings online. For those already registered, log into the mini-summit platform using the same links and credentials you received last week from RingCentral and visit the Replay area. If you hadn’t previously registered, you still can by visiting the mini-summit webpage. Pay-what-you-can registration gets you access to all the recordings.

https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/mini-summit

Sessions

-Commemorating Early America in Times of Trouble
- More Influence than a Cicero:The American War for Independence and Late-18th-Century Wind Bands
- America 250? We Are Infinity: Existence Beyond 250 Years through Indigenous Resonance
- The Soundworld of Early America’s Black String Bands

05/16/2026

Our final America250 Mini-Summit presentation will start in 15 minutes at 3:45pm ET/12:45pm PT
earlymusicamerica.org/mini-summit

The Soundworld of Early America's Black String Bands

Throughout the era of slavery in America and beyond, Black string bands played for the majority of dances, formal balls, barbecues, and other social engagements across the country. This Black old-time music tradition continues today through groups like the Carolina Chocolate Drops. As we seek to revive forgotten stories of early America’s Black musicians, what tools can we use to explore this unique soundworld?

EMA executive director David McCormick moderates this panel discussion and offers insight into his research on Monticello’s Black fiddlers. Star performer and scholar Dom Flemons offers a glimpse into his work collecting early Black string band recordings. Lee Bidgood joins this panel to speak about his own research and the work of encouraging the next generation of scholar-performers to keep this music alive. From Loren Ludwig, we’ll explore his collection of New England viols and learn about Sawney Freeman, known as the first published Black American composer.

May 16, 2026: 12pm-5pm ET/9am-2pm PT Early Music America explores music at the founding of the United States of America, the complexities and considerations surrounding the musical traditions of the time, and how modern artists and organizations are approaching this period. Pay-what-you-can registra...

05/16/2026

The next America250 Mini-Summit session starts in 15 minutes at 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT
earlymusicamerica.org/mini-summit

America 250? We Are Infinity: Existence Beyond 250 Years through Indigenous Resonance

This panel brings together artists, scholars, performers, and activists to reflect on how we navigate life as musicians in a world that too often attempts to deny our existence. Representative of a diverse collection of Indigenous communities, the panelists offer perspectives that move beyond the status quo, challenging and reimagining the canons that have historically confined both Indigenous presence and the field of Early Music itself.

Since time immemorial, their communities have held songs and traditions, each individual on the panel a legacy. Whether it is traditional, contemporary, or interpretation of music from the early music canon, each panelist brings forward cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative practice in ways that are both expansive and celebratory, and allows us to deepen and transform how we understand what “Early Music” can be.

Moderator: Breana Hallmé McCullough, Karuk violist, activist and scholar
Panelists:
Karin Cuéllar, Bolivian historical violinist and researcher, EMA Board President
Ellis Montes, PhD candidate at McGill University and musician
Nathan Woodworth, Karuk storyteller, actor, theatre-maker, and dialect coach

May 16, 2026: 12pm-5pm ET/9am-2pm PT Early Music America explores music at the founding of the United States of America, the complexities and considerations surrounding the musical traditions of the time, and how modern artists and organizations are approaching this period. Pay-what-you-can registra...

05/16/2026

Our next America250 Mini-Summit session starts in 15 minutes at 1:15pm ET/10:15am PT
earlymusicamerica.org/mini-summit

More Influence than a Cicero: The American War for Independence and Late-18th-Century Wind Bands

Wind bands of the late 18th century — oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons — are typically presented as a Central European phenomenon championed by the Viennese. But evidence suggests that the genre had become a mainstay of broader European culture between the 1750s and 1770s in connection to the military. Throughout this period — coinciding with the French and Indian War (1754–1763) and American War for Independence (1775–1783) — the militarization of Britain’s North American colonies and the nascent U.S. connected the people with professional musicians serving with military wind bands.

This presentation seeks to accomplish two goals: blur the line between “harmoniemusik” and the military band repertoire; and show how the American War for Independence can serve as a lens in understanding martial music in Britain, Germany, and France, and how these cultures influenced the development of America’s earliest military bands.

Presenter: Dominic Giardino, Membership Manager, Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York

May 16, 2026: 12pm-5pm ET/9am-2pm PT Early Music America explores music at the founding of the United States of America, the complexities and considerations surrounding the musical traditions of the time, and how modern artists and organizations are approaching this period. Pay-what-you-can registra...

05/16/2026

Our first America250 Mini-Summit session starts in 15 minutes!
earlymusicamerica.org/mini-summit

Commemorating Early America in Times of Trouble

Bloomington Early Music is one of the few early-music presenters in the U.S., and its 2026 festival program commemorates the 250th anniversary of Early America’s call for independence.

This EMA Mini-Summit panel comprises past and present BLEMF artists, board members, and scholars who are deeply immersed in these practical, ideological, historical, and, of course, musical considerations. They will address difficult questions head-on about planning and programming as well as representation, repertoire, and the beginnings of an “American” sound. They will look for definitive answers; if not, then for a better understanding of what’s at stake, what there is to gain as artists, and what there is to offer our audience.

Moderator: Suzanne Ryan Melamed, President & CEO, Bloomington Early Music.
Panelists:
Carlolann Buff, Associate Professor of Music at Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
Jean Bernard Cerin, Assistant Professor of Music, Cornell University
Dominic Giardino, Membership Manager, Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York
Bernard Gordillo, Visiting Scholar, University of California, Riverside

May 16, 2026: 12pm-5pm ET/9am-2pm PT Early Music America explores music at the founding of the United States of America, the complexities and considerations surrounding the musical traditions of the time, and how modern artists and organizations are approaching this period. Pay-what-you-can registra...