National Early Music Association UK
Move to a subscription-free and open access model
The National Early Music Association UK (NEMA) was founded in 1981 as a coordinating body for the various strands of early musical activity in the UK and to promote the appreciation and performance of early music by amateurs and professionals. It is a Registered Charity (No. 297300). NEMA works alongside regional Early Music Fora (who run practical workshops and courses), and other early music organisations in the UK and worldwide. Over the years, it has produced numerous publications and organises regular academic conferences and other events. The current publications are Early Music Performance and Research and the NEMA Newsletter, both published twice yearly.
After more than forty years as a subscription-based membership organization, NEMA has now moved to a subscription-free and open-access model. Membership is now open to all, international as well as UK, with no subscription fee. A website has been set up at https://nema3.webnode.co.uk/ pending the redesign and relaunch of the main website. The most recent issues of the current two journals and newsletters are downloadable from the website, as is an 80-page index to all the past publications. The NEMA website will eventually include the complete back catalogue of publications going back 35 years, a record of previous conferences and events, together with links and other useful information.
The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, although its roots go back a further 14 years or so. After some preliminary events, the festival proper ran for the last two weeks in August. It usually features three fully staged operas, although this year the third of them was reduced to a one-night concert performance of the Ruhrtriennale festival’s production of Gluck’s Alceste, conducted by René Jacobs who until 2009 was artistic director of the Innsbrucker Festwochen and, incidentally, the singer at the first concert of the first festival on 24 August 1976.
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 