Bloomington Early Music Festival

About the Event

Throughout Festival Week, enjoy artwork created by children of families who have recently joined our community, having left their troubled homelands in other parts of the world. The exhibit will encircle the mainstage space at FAR Center from Opening Night, Sunday, through Friday night. During evening performances, you will be surrounded by the visual art of young children who have had to leave their homes behind, while you are immersed in the music of those who had much the same experience so many centuries ago. We are grateful to our new neighbors for sharing their artwork with us and for contributing their talents to our festival. Thank you and welcome to Bloomington!

Scheduel:

2:00pm | Workshop

Making Music Books

Printing Presses, Quills & Ink

Learn about early printing technology from a replica 15th-century Gutenberg printing press, then join in a fun quill & ink making activity to create your own tools for writing the old-fashioned way!

Led by Lilly Library & Kirby Haugland

Workshop runs 2:00pm-3:30pm

Venue: Lilly Library 1200 E. 7th Street

5:00pm | Workshop

Tavern Hopping through Time

Third Round!

Listen, learn & be merry while time traveling in place. Hear about the history of music & drink through lecture, demonstration, sing along & tasting! Try out centuries-old drink recipes while listening to early music written to be performed while imbibing.

Led by Devon Nelson

Workshop runs 5:00pm-6:30pm

$15 at the door  |  21+ only

Venue: John Waldron Arts Center 122 S. Walnut Street

8:00pm | Live Concert

Musica Pacifica

Enclosures, Clearances, the First Wave, oh my!

(San Francisco, CA) During the 18th century, Ireland, Scotland, and England all experienced similar social changes and hardships that forced many of the poorest members of society to effectively become exiles from their native lands. Scotland experienced the "highland clearance", the English had the "enclosure movement", and finally, the Irish had the "first wave" of migration to the United States. Countless subsistence farmers were forced to migrate to other regions, countries, and even continents, leaving their homes and livelihoods behind. Showcasing some of the music that would have been made and heard by these immigrants both before and after they left their homeland, this program features folk tunes and popular dance music from the British Isles in the eighteenth century as well as descendant tunes from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Recently celebrating their 30th anniversary, Musica Pacifica  is widely recognized as one of America’s premier baroque ensembles, lauded for both “dazzling virtuosity” and “warm expressiveness.” They have been described as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell). Musica Pacifica has performed on such prestigious concert stages as the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection (NY), the Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Cleveland Art Museum, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC), Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque, Seattle Early Music Guild, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC) and the Houston Early Music Society, as well as multiple appearances on the San Francisco Early Music Society series at home. They have performed at festivals in Germany and Austria, and have been featured on German National Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, and National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “Harmonia.” Musica Pacifica’s ten CDs on the Virgin Classics, Dorian, Solimar, and Navona labels, including their iconic “Dancing in the Isles—folk and Baroque music from England, Ireland, and Scotland”—have won numerous national and international awards.

7:15pm | Pre-concert Discussion with folklorist Caroline VerMeulen and Musica Pacifica director, Judy Linsenberg, and co-director, Alexa Haynes-Pilon

Venue: FAR Center for Contemporary Arts 505 W. 4th Street

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