Message from the Director

December 2007

All is well in the Early Music Institute at Indiana University!  I have just ended the first semester of my fourth year at IU and I am pleased with the work we are doing in the EMI.  My proposal to progress into Classical repertoire with period instruments is now a wonderful reality, with many concerts to attest to the success of our study of this rich literature.  Our Baroque Orchestra becomes Classical Orchestra for half of each year; the concert on February 9, 2008 includes a Saint-Georges violin concerto with soloist Andrew Fouts (one of the winners of our concerto competition) and one of the Haydn “Paris Symphonies.”  Other performances this semester are a medieval program “Sponsae Christi,” including a play newly edited for performance by Wendy Gillespie, on February 24; Baroque Orchestra on February 29 and April 13 (with Pro Arte Singers); Classical Orchestra on March 22; and a program of Monteverdi and Schuetz led by Nigel North on March 30. There are also chamber music concerts and a myriad of recitals!

We are fortunate to have been able to add several excellent adjunct lecturers to our faculty and now offer instruction in cornetto/early trumpet with Kiri Tollaksen, early clarinet with Eric Hoeprich, baroque cello with Christine Kyprianides and early trombone with Linda Pearse.  Two of my dreams, to hear a cornetto/sackbut ensemble at IU and to hear our orchestra play a Beethoven symphony, will surely become reality.

Historically informed performance has greatly influenced the style of modern orchestral performance.  It is important that all students in the Jacobs School of Music have the opportunity to experience this approach.  In addition to educating our nearly 60 early music performance majors, we offer courses that are available to, sometimes even specifically intended for players of modern instruments.  For instance, EMI faculty now offer introductory courses that include literature, performance practice and “hands on” experience in their fields of expertise. 

We continue to offer courses on special topics such as solo string literature of Bach, Baroque orchestral repertoire for woodwinds, and chamber music of the baroque and classical periods to players of modern instruments. Our courses in performance practice of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras attract both early music majors and modern instrumentalists/vocalists.

Our guests for the 2007-08 academic year have included Baroque dance authority, Sandra Hammond who came to us for an intensive week of dance classes at the beginning of the fall semester, and clavichord and fortepiano specialist, Joan Benson, who taught both our own majors and many modern keyboard players clavichord and fortepiano during her two week residency.  We look forward to the visit, for a concert and master classes, of the trio Wilbert Hazelzett, Jaap ter Linden, Jacques Ogg in February as well as a master class with Christopher Hogwood.  In April 2008 Dutch recorder virtuoso Marion Verbruggen will come to us for a master class and a recital on April 11 with Elisabeth Wright and me.

Focus Recordings, the label of the EMI, has released a second recording of French hurdy-gurdy music played by IU Professor Robert Green.  Soon to be released is EMI horn teacher Richard Seraphinoff’s “Cornucopia II,” featuring German classical music for horn and strings.  Also scheduled for release this season is a retrospective of Joan Benson’s clavichord and fortepiano recordings made between 1962 and 1986 as well as a CD of Telemann wind sonatas and chamber music performed by Eva Legene, Washington McClain, EMI alumnus Corey Jameson, and me.

The Indiana Press series, “Publications of the Early Music Institute,” includes a recent re-release of Jeffery Kite-Powell’s A Performer’s Guide to Renaissance Music, which includes a chapter on bowed string instruments by Wendy Gillespie.  Several other manuscripts are under consideration for the series.

It is an honor and a privilege for me to work in the Early Music Institute at the Jacobs School of Music. I am very grateful to my colleagues and our students for all the hard work that makes our program so successful. Thank you for visiting our web site.

Michael McCraw