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The Madison Early Music Festival and Early Music Events

On these pages you will find information about early music events in Southern Wisconsin and details about the annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) held each summer in Madison, WI.

The Festival and Workshops

The Madison Early Music Festival was created in 2000 to provide an opportunity for musicians,scholars, teachers and early music enthusiasts to gather and exchange information and ideas about Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music and to bring acclaimed early music artists to the Midwest to perform in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. There are opportunities for everyone, from those who simply enjoy listening to concerts and lectures to early music scholars, and performance opportunities for amateurs and professionals. All listeners, singers, players and dancers are welcome!

The Festival Concert Series consists of seven concerts and includes performances by ensembles-in-residence as well as a Faculty Concert, Participant Concert, and All-Festival Concert. For the Faculty Concert, resident artists collaborate outside their usual ensemble membership, resulting in an exciting program with even greater variety than the rest of the week's concerts. In the Participant Concert, free to the public, participant consorts showcase the skills they ahve achieved under the coaching of MEMF faculty during the week. In the All-Festival Concert, the culmination of the week, highlight for faculty as well as participants. Each evening concert includes a pre-concert lecture by a renowned scholar and/or performer on a topic related to the Festival theme.

Workshop classes occupy five days of the Festival, with offerings ranging from beginner-level instruction to advanced master classes and consorts. Class topics include vocal and instrumental technique, historical performance practices, and specific early music repertoires. Instruction in historical dance is offered as evening "recreation" as well, in some years, a regular daytime class. A midday lecture series expands evening pre-concert lectures for workshop participants and provides two additional lectures open to the public.

 

The Rest of the Year

MEMF collaborates with other early music performers and presenters in and near Madison in order to cultivate local early music activity. In addition to partnering with major presenters such as Early Music Now and the Wisconsin Union Theater to host visiting ensembles during the year, we maintain a list of early music events on our Concerts and Events page and send e-mail announcements of upcoming concerts to our mailing list. To subscribe, send a blank email to: join-memf@lists.wisc.edu

 

Where We Are

The annual Festival and Workshop takes place on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, in the George L. Mosse Humanities Building near the shores of beautiful Lake Mendota and the college-town atmosphere of State Street. Museums, bicycle and nature trails, sailing, interesting architecture and culturally historical sites, and a broad selection of restaurants, pubs, and ice cream and cheese shops (a local specialty in the Dairy State!) are just a sampling of the leisure options available to summertime visitors.

 

Where We Have Been: Past Festival Themes and Performers

2009
Telescopic Vistas: MEMF X & Music of the Spheres
Piffaro – Newberry Consort – Quicksilver – Marion Verbruggen – Venere Lute Quartet

2008
Handel’s Journey: From Germany to England via Italy
Newberry Consort – Marion Verbruggen – Tempesta di Mare – Quicksilver – Baroque Band

2007
Early Music from the Low Countries: The Age of the Netherlanders
Piffaro – Marion Verbruggen – Fortune’s Wheel – The King’s Noyse

2006
Early Music from the Iberian Peninsula: Spain & the Age of Discovery
Baltimore Consort – Ex Umbris – Chatham Baroque – Ivory Consort

2005
The Fairest Isle: Early Music from England and Scotland
The King’s Noyse – Piffaro – Ex Umbris – Baltimore Consort – Second City Musick

2004
The Glories of 17th-Century Venice
Spiritus Collective – Catacoustic Consort – La Venexiana – Newberry Consort – Piffaro

2003
Bach and His World
Musica Pacifica – Newberry Consort – Piffaro

2002
A Distant Mirror: French Medieval and Renaissance Music
Concord Ensemble – Folger Consort – Piffaro – Newberry Consort

2001
Music of Elizabethan England and Its Italian Influences
Newberry Consort – Marion Verbruggen – The Scholars of Cambrai – Kielson/Spears/Trompeter

2000
Monteverdi and Schütz
Cecilia’s Circle – Newberry Consort – Trio Atlantica – Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble