Indianapolis Early Music (IEM) is a non-profit organization established in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

in 1966 to organize concerts featuring music of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, and early classic eras. Since 1966, it has produced the annual Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the oldest continuous Early Music festival in the United States. Its annual summer festival spans three weekends and features American and international performers who perform on instruments of the period. Beyond the festival, IEM also presents other Early Music concerts throughout the year while also fostering educational programs in Indianapolis schools.

History

Indianapolis Early Music, originally known by its corporate name of the Festival Music Society, was founded in 1966 to provide music during the summer months when the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, now one of the few full-year U.S. orchestras, was on vacation. The IEM initially concentrated on the major works of the baroque era, such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. The range of music presented was soon expanded to include that of the Renaissance and Medieval periods. Music played at IEM concerts is that of works generally composed between 900 AD and 1800 AD. Performances have included

vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with musical instruments, instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which ...

, both choral and solo;

instrumental music An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

, both ensemble and solo; and dance, court, folk and ballet. Among the more noteworthy early concerts was the 1977 performance of the cycle of seven Bach Partitas by harpsichordist

Igor Kipnis Igor Kipnis (September 27, 1930January 23, 2002) was a German-born American harpsichordist, pianist and conductor. Biography The son of Metropolitan Opera bass Alexander Kipnis, he was born in Berlin, where his father was singing with the Berlin S ...

in Indianapolis just before making his Grammy-nominated recordings of them for Angel Records.

Outreach

IEM has a long association with public radio. Selections of IEM concerts throughout the United States and Canada are broadcast on the program

Performance Today ''Performance Today'' is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million liste ...

. Selections are regularly featured on the WFIU's nationally distributed Early Music program, ''Harmonia''. In addition, IEM has conducted workshops in Early Music and dance, presented a symposium and exposition of historical musical instruments, and sponsored the Collegiate Virtuoso competition. In 2016, it co-presented the International Baroque Competition of Indianapolis with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. Prizes include a $10,000 first prize presented by the Gerber family.

Artistic and music directors

The position of IEM music director was held by Frank Cooper for 35 years. A former member of the faculty of Butler University, Cooper is currently Research Professor of Music in the Department of Musicology at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

in Coral Gables, Florida and Associate Curator of Fine Arts at the Vizcaya Museum in Miami, Florida. In 2008, IEM appointed Mark Cudek as its Artistic Director following Cooper's retirement. The 2001 recipient of Early Music America's Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding contributions to Early Music education, Cudek is the Director of the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

's Early Music department at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Cudek is a performer specializing in guitar, recorder, crumhorn, bass viol, and percussion. Among the groups he has toured with are Hesperus, Apollo's Fire, Catacoustic Consort, and the Baltimore Consort. Cudek is actively involved in the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and was creator and Director of the High School Early Music Program at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. He is the creator of a Masters program at Peabody; instituted a new Baroque Orchestra, and has developed an Early Music program at the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

in Baltimore. Mark Cudek earned a B.F.A. from the University of New York and M.Music from the Peabody Institute.

References

{{reflist

External links

Indianapolis Early Music website
Culture of Indianapolis Early music festivals Music festivals established in 1966 Classical music festivals in the United States