BLEMF 2024
Early Music in Exile
Call for Concert Proposals
Beginning in 2022, our annual festival has centered on an exploration of under-represented groups in early music making. BLEMF 2024: Early Music in Exile is the third of these thematically focused festivals.
Our 2024 festival programming will explore music of communities and individuals in exile, from forced migration, expulsion, and diaspora to the paradox of exile “in place” that plays out as extreme political oppression, religious persecution and forced conversion. BLEM aims to highlight the many ways that the conditions of exile—found in seemingly countless histories across regions and religions, throughout medieval times to the end of the early modern era—have been expressed through music that displays resistance, defines identity, expresses fear, loss, hope, and joy, and communicates faith and convictions.
Among other examples, we welcome considerations of Recusant Catholics after the Reformation; Protestants of the Counter-Reformation; Puritans in the Netherlands and North America; Irish, Scottish, and Welsh under English rule; American and Australian penal colonies; enslaved Black Africans and Maroons; Moriscos and Conversos after the Reconquista and during the Inquisition; diasporic Jews and Roma throughout the globe; and persistent stories of ancient oppression and exile that emerge in music of the long period.
As with all BLEMF programming, intersectionality is vital to this approach, and we aim to assemble a festival that represents not only a range of cultures, religions and geographies, but also a balance of gender, race and class across the near-millennium of the early music period.
Early Music is defined by BLEM broadly, encompassing musics from the medieval period through the early 19th century, across regional and cultural traditions within and outside of canonical boundaries.
CONCERT FORMAT
Your proposed concert should fit the following parameters:
early music repertoire performed on period instruments, with a clear and strong relation to the festival theme; any genre or ensemble combination is welcome, with the understanding that large-scale performances may be beyond budgetary means;
approximately 60 minutes of music, not including any intermission or verbal introductions/descriptions.
BLEMF 2023 will be a hybrid festival, featuring both livestreamed in-person and pre-recorded virtual events. With the consent of performers, recordings of festival performances can be made permanently available on the Bloomington Early Music website (www.BLEMF.org) and our YouTube Channel following the festival, with links to performers’ websites to keep our audiences connected with your activities following the festival.
EMERGING & BLOOMINGTON ARTISTS
Continuing our tradition of supporting new talent and newly-formed ensembles, BLEMF 2023 will highlight a number of Emerging Artists/Ensembles events throughout the festival week. We define Emerging Artists & Ensembles as individuals or ensembles that are in their first five years of professional performance, after having participated in or completed a training program, or simultaneous with but separate from enrollment in such a program. BLEM also warmly welcomes submissions for this category from artists who have not been formally or institutionally trained in early music and are within the first five years of a professional career in the sphere of historically informed performance. Please indicate if your submission falls into this category.
Additionally, a portion of events will be reserved for Bloomington-based or affiliated artists and ensembles to support local talent and strengthen the tradition of early music in the city and BLEM’s longstanding association with the Historical Performance Institute at the Jacobs School of Music. We define Bloomington Artists & Ensembles as individuals or ensembles based in Bloomington or with individual members who are currently part of the Bloomington community; current or past students or faculty of the HPI, the Jacobs School of Music or Indiana University; or those otherwise directly connected to the city or to south central Indiana. Please indicate on the submission form if your ensemble falls into this category.
EVALUATION
Proposals will be evaluated based on the quality of materials listed above, with particular attention to relevance to the festival theme. Incomplete submissions or submissions received past the deadline will not be considered. Although we do not anticipate the need to do so, Bloomington Early Music may request additional information after your initial submission.
The total number of events to be included in the 2024 festival will be based in part on submissions received and budgetary considerations. Our current plan is for seven in-person and seven virtual performances.
Bloomington Early Music aims to create a balanced festival program that will engage and educate our audiences, and therefore innovative approaches to the theme are welcome within the parameters of historical performance practice. We encourage submissions that promote our goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion from all angles, including diverse musical cultures, composers, performers, and audiences within the larger frame of Early Music as outlined above.
TIMELINE
Proposal deadline: Friday, September 25, 2023
Festival Dates: May 19-25, 2024
Your submission will be acknowledged via a receipt from the Google form. If you do not receive an automatic receipt please contact office@blemf.org