About the New York Early Music Celebration

An EMF Service-to-the-Field project, this festival is designed to showcase New York’s historically informed performance artists, ensembles and presenters.

In the Celebration’s 2004 inaugural year, EMF organized a city-wide early music celebration that spawned sixty-plus events. In 2007, the number of participants grew to more than ninety. In 2010, EMF together with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Concerts & Lectures and Musical Instruments Departments combined resources to co-produce a day-long Early Music Festival.

In 2013, the festival concept was enhanced by introducing a national theme, Pro Musica Polonica, with select foreign guests. The 2015 festival’s national theme was titled El Nuevo Mundo, showcasing music and ensembles from Latin America and Iberia; and the 2017 festival was titled The Low Countries, featuring music and guest artists from Flanders and Holland. Ex Borealis (2019) focused on repertoire from the Nordic and Baltic regions, not often heard in New York, and included artists and ensembles from those areas.

2024 will mark both the 50^th anniversary of the Early Music Foundation, and the 20^th anniversary of the first New York Early Music Celebration. The forthcoming festival, as in previous years, is open to all NYC historical performance artists and presenters, as well as touring ensembles appearing in New York during that time period.

All New York-based historical performance artists, ensembles, and presenters are invited to schedule events during the festival. EMF’s principal role will be to augment promotional efforts of all participants via an umbrella marketing budget for the full Celebration, encompassing a brochure, radio ads, social media and public relations.

We anticipate this eighth Celebration endeavor will be another noteworthy event – an opportunity for the New York Early Music Community to reinforce its presence, qualitative and quantitative, on the City’s cultural scene.