The international dimension in early music

Detail from a Van Dyck painting showing a musician playing a musetteIt is worth noting that the best young performers in early music soon gain a wide experience on the international stage, as has been the case with a number of our recent graduates.

CEMPR prepares you for this in providing an international dimension to  its performance and research by offering a rare platform in the UK for cross-fertilizing British, American and Continental European approaches to the interpretation of early music.

Workshops and masterclasses

We have close links with many of the leading early music performers and ensembles around Europe and in the US, and with staff  working in other early music institutes (such as the Schola Cantorum  Basiliensis, Switzerland, and others in The Hague, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice and Berlin). Consequently there are frequent opportunities at CEMPR to attend workshops, lectures and masterclasses with some of the best performers and scholars of our generation. CEMPR has established a relationship with. Several CEMPR tutors play with the Britain's premier period-instrument orchestra  —  the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and other members of the Orchestra regularly visit the University to give workshops: one project with the Orchestra involved some 40 students in a Berlioz project, which culminated in performances at the Royal Festival Hall, London and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Professional concerts, colloquia and conference

CEMPR also hosts concerts with foreign artists of the highest calibre. This is frequently in collaboration with other promoters of early music in Birmingham and in the region, in particular with the city-based organisation the Birmingham Early Music Festival and the Henry Barber Trust. Artists featured have included Fretwork, Anonymous 4, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Sequentia, and Ensemble Gilles Binchois (to mention but a few) as well as leading European soloists.  There are frequent guest lectures by leading early music scholars, and the thriving community of early music scholars and performers at CEMPR ensures lively discussions and debates.