In this last episode, Darina meets the artistic director of the Zefiro Torna ensemble, Jurgen De Bruyn, to discuss the shift towards ecological awareness and the collaborative approach as an example of interest in and respect for other cultures. In the course of this conversation, Jurgen de Bruyn mentions a project he launched during the Covid-19 p…

In this episode, Darina talks to three female guests, Laura Granero, Hannah Ely and Aino Peltomma, who share their views on diversity in their country and the inspiration they draw from influential women of the past. We look at what it meant to be a musician in the 19th century, what it meant to have a traditional upbringing in Victorian England, a…

With the director of the early music department at the Royal Conservatory The Hague, Teunis van der Zwart, we discuss the challenges of making a conservatoire more diverse and inclusive safe space, as well as open to interdepartmental collaborations. Finally, we find out how the lives of students and teachers can be made safer in an institution, an…

How do we tackle gender equality issues in our sector? How do we deal with problematic texts of music works? Lila Hajosi, director of Ensemble Irini and co-founder of the French network #EllesDirigent, which supports women ensemble directors, will share her views on the challenges raised by these issues and the importance of creating an atmosphere …

This episode is devoted to a guest straight from America: Karin Cuéllar Rendón, from the Early Music America network, historic Bolivian violinist, researcher and social justice advocate. Together with Darina, they will discuss issues of inclusivity and diversity in the field of early music, as well as interaction with the LGBTQI+ community and enla…

In this episode, Jan Van den Borre, artistic director of MA Festival Brugge, presents his approach to programming one of the oldest early music festivals in the world. We talk about communication, mediation and engagement of the audience, the importance of empathy and respect in relationships with artists, and the challenges raised by today's genre…

Anna Karinsdotter, managing director of Drottningholm Theatre in Sweden, shares in this episode the strategies used by the Theatre to be more effective and inclusive in terms of audiences, and how this artistic genre is taking steps to include children and artists with special needs in a baroque opera performance. CREDITS guest Anna Karinsdotter, D…

This episode is devoted to the EEEmerging programme and its lasting change, openness to mental health issues and the mid-career diversion of professional musicians. Isabelle Battioni, director of the Centre culturel de rencontre d'Ambronay, shares her rich professional experience on these current issues. CREDITS guest Isabelle Battioni, Centre cult…

In this episode, we're off to discover the traditions of historical queer theatre and the problem of ‘ideological’ traditionalist practices in music. Darina will discuss the possibility of re-examining the original texts with members of the ĀRT HOUSE 17 ensemble: Michael Hell, Thomas Höft and Georg Krones. CREDITS guests Michael Hell, Thomas Höft a…

In this first episode, Darina shares a discussion with the artistic director of the ECOS festival and director of the Cantoría vocal ensemble, Jorge Losana, about the evolution of the young festival he organises, keeping in mind his unique approach to awareness-raising, repertoires diversity, and an empathetic and inclusive attitude towards the aud…

Hello and welcome to the last special episode of the 4th season of the Early Music Podcast, dedicated to the impressions shared by the participants of the Early Music Summit with host Darina Ablogina. CREDITS guests Richard Lorber, WDR and the Early Music Days in Herne Mélanie Froehly, ZAMUS Thomas Höft and Georg Kroneis, Kunsthaus 17 Lila Hajosi, …

In a branch of music where research plays such a central role, how can there be such a disconnection between research and performance? How can we create cooperation between both fields? These themes, according to Rebekah Ahrendt, are central in "EarlyMuse", a research action funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). Liste…

How early music can be specific in its approach to new audiences? How are conservatoires tackling this issue? Isaac Alonso de Molina shares his views on the need for conservatoires to teach audience development, as the first step to develop the artists' skills to engage with society, and a focal point of the European Association of Conservatoires' …

What’s the situation of inclusion in the Early Music sector? In this episode, countertenor Reginald Mobley puts the issues of race, gender, and more generally, identity under the spotlight. He talks about the challenges and discrimination he faced as an Afro-American singer, and opens our eyes to the progress that still needs to be made to make the…

What’s the current situation of recordings in Early Music? How can we innovate in a sector that has undergone such change in recent years? Listen to Hannelore Guittet’s view on the topic: starting as co-founder of recording label NomadMusic, she had to adapt to drastic changes in the recording industry and created interactive application NomadPlay.…

In this episode, Tiago Simas Freire discusses how research is also a means of connecting the past with present emotions. More than historically informed, Early Music can be culturally informed and resonate with our own experiences. And that’s the first step for successful research projects that will breach the market! CREDITS guest Tiago Simas Frei…

How do we create and innovate in early music today? How do we reappropriate music that has been played thousands of times? Raphaël Pichon puts honesty, generosity, objectivity and responsibility at the heart of his work with the Pygmalion ensemble. In this 4th episode, he shares his views on the challenges faced by each generation, the need for an …

What role do agents play in promoting early music? How can they help the sector evolve? Management, digitization, new expectations, news skills... Clémentine Richard from l'Agence Artist Management shares her views on the changes in the management business in this third episode of the Early Music Podcast. CREDITS guest Clementine Richard, Agence Ar…

What’s the scope of early music? This unanswerable question impacts our practices and our approaches to the sector. Since reaching a common definition seems idealistic, why not embrace the different meanings given to these words, and what they imply for their supporters and their activities? In this second episode, Romina Lischka shares her specifi…

How can Europe contribute to strenghten the early music scene? How can cultural policies be regulated at European level when culture is so specific to one country? What are the concrete impacts of European policies at the level of a country, a network, a town, etc.? In this first episode, Rarita Zbranca explains the repercussions of EU policies on …

Does music get suddenly better when it’s linked to the Borgia family, or are we ok with anonymously composed pieces? In this final episode of the season, musicologist Laurie Stras introduces us to an enigmatic composer: Suor Maria Celeste (1600-1634), illegitimate daughter of the Italian scientist Galileo, and a Florentine nun of the early 17th cen…

Probably a XIXth century woman couldn’t contribute significantly as an artist, composer or concert organizer, right? And if we apply the critical eye of early music to more recent times, what do we get? Here we take a step aside to discover the work of Clara Wieck-Schumann (1819-1896), a genius pianist and talented composer, overshadowed by a compo…

How are you an artist when you are just following a tradition and reading a score? With this eighth episode, Björn Schmelzer takes us on a journey of discovery of medieval sacred music and the oral tradition. This episode a dive into the revival of early music in the XXᵉ century and is dedicated to the French composer and writer Guillaume de Machau…

How could we possibly top the perfection that is a masterpiece like Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas? In this seventh episode, composer Errollyn Wallen presents her opera Dido's Ghost, a sequel to Henry Purcell's (1659-1695) semi-opera Dido and Æneas. At a time when the Baroque and the performing arts were flourishing in England, Purcell's work offered his …

What is so fascinating about some medieval nun’s songs? Better known for her important work as a naturalist and physician, Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) also composed more than one hundred and fifty liturgical songs and melodies, which were rediscovered in the late 1970s by the ensemble Sequentia and its two directors, Barbara Thornton an…

Don’t you sometimes wish you could just ask Beethoven what he meant in that peculiar passage? This fifth episode is devoted to one of the most famous composers in classical music: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), presented by Olga Pashchenko. While this one is not obviously early music, it does allow us to look back at the history of the piano, th…

Why do you care so much about what sort of keyboard Johan Sebastian Bach used to play on? This fourth episode is devoted to the fifteenth-century Flemish composer Guillaume Dufay, but also to a work of art that is as mythical as it is mystical, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent) by the Van Eyck brothers. Catalina V…

What happens when a piece by Monteverdi finds its way to its original concert hall? In the third episode of season 3 of the Early Music Podcast, Tim Carter introduces us to Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), an Italian composer and contemporary of Girolamo Frescobaldi, who is considered one of the creators of opera and, with Orfeo, the author of the f…

Why can’t you just read the score that you want to perform? Dedicated to the Italian genius composer Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), this episode is an introduction to early music performance and textual sources. Francesco Corti, harpsichordist and conductor, explains the principles of musical improvisation and, above all, how composers told thei…

What is so special about Early Music that it makes people so passionate about it? What is it like to “rediscover” today a composer from 1000 years ago? What do you learn about a piece when you search for the ultimate grail of the original concert hall it was first performed in? How can you try to rebuild a long gone Renaissance instrument and not l…

This episode of the Early Music Podcast takes you to Aix en Provence, on the occasion of the Rencontres Nationales d’Accord Majeur, for our last French Summer episode! This conference is organized every year in the frame of Aix en Provence Festival, and gathers members of various French networks for music (ensembles, operas, festivals…). This year’…

Depuis quelques années, les préoccupations de transition sociale et écologique sont au premier plan des questions politiques et sociales ainsi que dans nos vies privées et professionnelles. De nombreuses organisations culturelles mettent en place des initiatives innovantes pour atteindre un avenir plus équitable et durable. Dans cette entreprise, i…

Cet épisode du Early Music Podcast fait suite à notre conférence REMAin Connected du 21 mai sur le tourisme culturel. Monument incontournable du patrimoine historique français, le Château de Versailles et son domaine accueillent chaque année environ 8 millions de visiteurs. C'est aussi un lieu important de l'histoire de la musique baroque française…

Ireland is known for many things but one thing that keeps fascinating people all around the world is its culture and its traditional music that pervades any representation we have of the country. As an early music musician in Ireland, it is inevitable to be confronted to the many instrumental and performance traditions that have existed for centuri…

When creating projects and programming concerts, concert organisers should always be aiming at satisfying their audiences’ needs or desires. But it is not only the role of programmers: composers and artists alike should also play an important role in the process of audience development. Interview with Constanze Wimmer, musicology professor at Graz …

For several years, museums have developed specific audience management strategies. In this episode, we will see how they can be applied to the Early Music field. But before that, in order to establish a strategy, one must know their audience: this is why audience surveys are essential in helping institutions to engage with the public. Interview wit…

We are very proud to welcome Margaret Bent as one of our keynote speakers for the Early Music Summit, our 100% online event. So proud that we are actually releasing her contribution in advance!

This episode will give an overview of the Early Music Summit that will take place from 20 to 22 November 2020 in BOZAR, Brussels on the occasion of the opening of registration. This major event for REMA is conceived as an opportunity for the whole early music sector to meet and work together towards a better future: taking a look back at the histor…

The End of Early music is at the same time the title of the book published by Bruce Haynes in 2007, the title of a symposium organized in ZAMUS (Köln) that was conceived as a follow-up on the book’s themes, and a deliberately controversial proposed approach to today’s Early music practice. In this episode, we gathered a few of the original guests o…

Early Music is all about how we deal with our heritage. After an episode where we followed the path that goes from the music instruments kept in museums collections to the stage and live performance, let’s hear how the precious written sources kept in our libraries can be a tool and an inspiration for the artists. Here is the story of another love …

CD recording has undergone major changes in the last few years, due, obviously, to the arrival of digital opportunities for distribution, and new habits for the listeners and CD buyers. How are the labels reacting and adapting? And what opportunity will performers see in recording their music in the future? What can we expect from the listeners’ si…

Which came first, Early Music or Europe? Whenever you choose a start date for Early Music, you will probably pick a period during which the idea of a common European culture was present. The music that marks us always carries a sense of belonging to a broader community, which made it relevant to so many people across the area. But it also gives a s…

What does it mean to study in the Early Music department of a prestigious conservatory? What would be different in a school designed to focus on Early repertoire? Or a Summer course? Or a more eclectic institution? Coming from a variety of backgrounds, our guests share how their teaching situation has shaped the curriculum and the pedagogy they can…

Early Music performances, just like any music performances, come with certain rules and traditions: you will most probably sit in a darkened room and enjoy your concert in silence for one hour and a half. These are not perpetual laws, but merely constantly evolving standards. And the magic happens when performers, programmers, and audiences step ou…

Interviews with Thierry Maniguet – Head of the curatorial team of Musée de la Musique -Paris Emanuele Marconi – Director of Musée des Instruments à vent - La Couture Boussey Geerten Verberkmoes - department of Musical Instrument Making University Ghent & School of Arts, Ghent Sebastian Kirsch - Musée de la musique, Paris & University of Leipzig Cat…

Interviews with Jonathan Cohen - cellist and director of Arcangelo Daniel Bizeray – Director of Ambronay and founder of the Eeemerging programme Jonatan Alvarado and Nuno Atalaia – Seconda Prat!ca Ensemble Skip Sempe – harpsichordist and founder of Capriccio Stravagante Catalina Vicens – keyboards player and artistic director of Servir Antico Music…

An interview with Bernard Foccroulle, organist, composer, former director of Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, founder of Culture et Démocratie and RESEO Music: Nigra Sum, Bernard Foccroulle-Outhere music 2012 Recorded on the Picard organ (1741) of Beaufays