May 19, 2003. Seattle, WA—Early Music America, the national service organization for the field of early music, announces the winners of its 2003 awards recognizing outstanding accomplishments in early music. These awards will be presented at the EMA Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony in the Franklin Room at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on June 13, 2003 at 3:30 p.m.

Joel Cohen, longtime director of the Boston Camerata, is the winner of the Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in the field of early music. Mr. Cohen has directed the Boston Camerata since 1969, and has made numerous recordings and toured extensively with that ensemble in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is also founder (1990) and director of the Camerata Mediterranea, a European-based medieval music ensemble, and he has been co-director of a summer early music workshop at Coaraze, France, since 1997. He is a professional lutenist. He is the author of Reprise: The extraordinary revival of early music (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985). Mr. Cohen received his B.A. in music from Brown University, and an M.A. in composition and musicology from Harvard University. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Georges Longy Achievement Award for Musical Artistry and Leadership (2002), the Harvard University Signet Award in the Arts (1983), and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic (1994).

Jeffery T. Kite-Powell, Professor and Chair of the Music History and Musicology Department at Florida State University, receives the Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college Collegium Musicum. Dr. Kite-Powell has been director of the FSU Early Music Ensemble since 1984. The ensemble includes over 35 graduate and undergraduate students divided into smaller ensembles of brass, woodwind, and string instrumentalists, and the vocal group Cantores Musicae Antiquae. Dr. Kite-Powell edited A Performer’s Guide to Renaissance Music (N.Y.: Schirmer, 1994). His new translation and edition of Praetorius’ Syntagma Musicum III is about to appear (Oxford University Press). He received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, is the recipient of the “Early Music Brings History Alive” Award, which honors ensembles or individual artists for excellence in educational outreach, as demonstrated in early music school programs at the elementary/secondary level. Piffaro (founded in 1980) gives an annual concert series in Philadelphia, but the ensemble also tours extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Since 1985, the ensemble has presented school performances, first as part of Young Audiences of Eastern Pennsylvania and the Delaware State Arts Council Residency Program, and then throughout the United States, in conjunction with their concert tours. The group created and published “An Introduction to the Renaissance Wind Band and its Instruments,” a valuable supplementary resource for teachers and students. Co-directed by Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemkin, Piffaro has inspired and entertained students across the nation.

Special Honorable Mention for the “Early Music Brings History Alive” award goes to David Coffin, Boston-based singer and instrumentalist, who sings sea chanteys from the New England whaling and fishing industry of the 19th century, and plays an extensive array of historical wind instruments for school assemblies.

Early Music America is also presenting scholarships to three outstanding students so that they can attend summer early music workshops and receive advanced training in the field of early music. This year’s winners are recorder player David Giusti, who is finishing his junior year in high school at The Washington Waldorf School; harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who is completing his sophomore year at Stanford University; and Baroque oboist Curtis Foster, who is finishing his junior year at Wichita State University.

About Early Music America
Early Music America serves and strengthens the early music community in North America and raises public awareness of early music. EMA was founded in 1985 and provides its 3,000 members with publications, advocacy, and technical support. EMA publishes the quarterly magazine Early Music America. “Early music” includes western music from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, performed on period instruments in historically-informed styles. For more information, contact Early Music America at 206-720-6270 or 888-SACKBUT, or visit our web site at www.earlymusic.org .