EMA FEATURES & PRESS RELEASES
Drumming to Parts Unknown
Percussionist Rex Benincasa writes about adding sounds and spices to music where there's little or no historical guidance, from the European high Baroque to Mediterranean North Africa and the court of the Tang Dynasty. Much of what he plays was never written down.
Canto: A Real Boy and a Real Job
'I was fresh out of grad school and desperately trying to make it as a freelance singer. I had patched together part-time arts administration and hustling. I was auditioning, taking miserable gigs, and commuting up to three hours...I was doing so much more than a 9-to-5, and yet, people still asked what my "real" job was...'
Baroque Violinist Wins Barbash Bach Competition
Baroque violinist Danqi Zeng, born in China and currently a doctoral student at Indiana Univ., won the 2025 Barbash J.S. Bach Competition. The prize includes $10,000 and at least five concert engagements in the coming seasons. 'Zeng's Bach spoke profoundly,' remarked one juror, 'and with an immediacy made more palpable by the unforced resonance of her Baroque instrument.'
Can AI Decipher a Manuscript Better than You?
Stuck on sloppy handwriting from the 17th century, a musician recently turned to artificial intelligence to help solve a motet's textural problems. Despite many negative impressions, 'the process of exploring ChatGPT opened my eyes to its potential' as a valuable research partner.
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EMA RECORDING & BOOK REVIEWS
Brahms Requiem on Period Instruments, Evoking Schütz
Raphaël Pichon and his award-winning Pygmalion ensemble move from strength to strength. Their latest is a period-instrument Brahms 'A German Requiem' that's among the best sung and most rewarding versions available.
Musica Secreta’s Record of Love
On the hills outside Florence sits the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, where nuns once supported themselves by spinning wool and making wine. But the heart of their lives was musical prayer. A bit of detective work connected two 16th c. nuns with a musical manuscript and, now, a glorious new recording.
Discovering Graupner on the Old Post Road
Boston's Musicians of the Old Post Road have again uncovered music by known composers whose works have been neglected. Their latest album is centered on Christoph Graupner (and a few contemporaries). Here the music is 'so vividly shaped and shot through with energy that the composer’s unique play of rhythm, texture, and harmony remain difficult to ignore.'
Life Lessons and Catholic Oratorio
Robert L. Kendrick's ambitious new monograph, a detailed look at the oratorio in Catholic Italy and Hapsburg Vienna, covers more than a century of repertoire, connecting Biblical stories — fratricide, child sacrifice, forbidden love, death — with political events and considers the social and moral impact on the listeners.
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COMMUNITY NEWS & PRESS RELEASES
The Sociable Fortepiano (March 5–9, 2026, New York City) is a new artist residency, workshop, and mini-festival reimagining fortepiano musicking as a space of connection and experimentation. Funded by the ...
The GRAMMY-winning Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Opera Series presents Stellidaura’s Revenge by Francesco Provenzale on Thanksgiving weekend in Boston Cambridge, MA – The GRAMMY Award-winning Boston Early Music Festival ...
This December, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band joins forces with New York City’s “splendid” (New York Times) Tenet Vocal Artists for a German Christmas program called Ein Kind Geborn. Combining the ...
Come join us in 2026 for the second edition of the Dutch International Traverso Competition. The live final rounds of this international student traverso competition will take place during the ...
Escape to the stage with Ann Ford (1737-1824)! When British socialite Ann Ford’s father demanded that she marry a man 30-years her senior (who had attempted to pay for her hand ...
