The Bloomington Early Music Festival Announces a Major collaboration with Early Music America

The Bloomington Early Music Festival (BLEMF) and the Historical Performance Institute (HPI) at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music are pleased to announce a major partnership with Early Music America (EMA) this year that includes an innovative series of performances by emerging artists and college ensembles from across the United States and Canada.

Marking 25 years since the founding of the Bloomington Early Music Festival, this year’s celebration overlaps with the third annual conference on Historical Performance: Theory, Practice, and Interdisciplinarity, presented by the HPI, under the guidance of its director, Dana Marsh. The Festival will host the founding of a national network of collegiate EMA chapters (under the name of IU’s founding chapter, Gamma Ut), a seminar on music entrepreneurship led by prominent figures in the field, a series of community events in Bloomington that coincide with the city’s bi-centennial celebrations, and an “Early Music, Late Nightâ€? open-mic event.

"This summer's triple-collaboration has been in the planning for two years—stimulated by a process that has nurtured a spontaneous and organic alignment of aspirations and goals contributed by all involved,"? said Marsh, who also serves as a member of the BLEMF board. “We’ve emerged with a shared vision that has the potential to create new models of interaction and means of achievement within our field."

Taking place from May 18-27, 2018, the Festival will open with an informative performance by world-renowned fortepianist, Robert Levin, and will continue with a brilliant array of concerts by the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, Costanoan Trio, Ingrid Matthews (violin), Mélisande McNabney and Jory Vinikour (harpsichord), Adriana Ruiz (soprano), Rachell Wong (violin), the Festival Orchestra, Festival Sacred Music Project, HPI goes POP!, Les Ordinaires, Rumore Terribile, and Voyage Sonique.

Embedded in the Festival will be two showcase performances of EMA Emerging Artists ​from across the US and Canada, and the EMA Young Performers Festival, a series of five concerts over three days by some of the leading early music programs around the US: Case Western Baroque Ensemble, Oberlin Baroque, USC Thornton School of Music Collegium Workshop, Peabody Baroque, and Tarara (Indiana University). Showcase performances at the Festival will be live-streamed via IUMusicLive! and all performances, exhibitions, and seminars are free and open to the public.

"It really is thrilling for EMA to be able to bring these extraordinary young musicians to Bloomington in May,"  said Karin Brookes, Executive Director of Early Music America. "There is clearly a huge demand for historical performance and networking opportunities and the partnership with the Jacobs School of Music and BLEMF is a great formula for providing the complex collaborative experiences that are so valuable to musicians today."

Celebrating the City of Bloomington's bicentenary, audiences can look forward to a star-studded performance by local old-time musicians and dancers, a project led by multi-instrumentalist Grey Larsen. As part of the old-time music celebration, the Festival will offer a hands-on workshop that explores the legacy of local fiddler, Joe Dawson (1928-2012) and will partner with the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music in a display and presentation of field recordings of the artist.   

"We're truly thrilled to be hosting this celebration in our community this year," said Alain Barker, president of Bloomington Early Music. "It comes at a time of impressive growth and interest in early music, especially as we expand the concept of what it means to study and perform historical performance."  

WFIU Public Radio, the festival's primary media partner, will participate in the live-streaming of selected concerts, and will feature many recordings from the festival through its nationally syndicated program, Harmonia.

Information about performances and activities surrounding the Festival this year can be found online via blemf.org and on social media. For more information, please contact the festival organizers at office@blemf.org.

FESTIVAL PARTNERS

Bloomington Early Music supports, encourages, and produces historically informed performance arts in Bloomington and South Central Indiana.

Early Music America serves and strengthens the early music community in North America through grants, scholarships, and resources that help everyone in the field at any level to explore, engage, and connect with early music and one another.

IU Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers students the highest standard of instrumental and vocal training along with a thorough grounding in the academic reference tools of the profession – comprehensive theoretical, critical, historiographical and practical skills: to study, interpret, and perform period-specific music of the past millennium through to the early twentieth century.

WFIU Public Radio serves south-central Indiana with cultural programming and NPR News. WFIU also extends the educational mission of Indiana University across America and beyond as the producer and distributor of programs including Harmonia. For more than two decades, Harmonia has been a chief destination for early music on dozens of U.S. broadcast outlets, and online at harmoniaearlymusic.org.