Bloomington Early Music Festival

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!

Schedule:

Opening Night!

8:00pm - Wit’s Folly

Émigré: French Refugees in the Early United States & the Music They Brought with Them

(Cleveland, OH) A musical journey of the Early American Republic during an all-but-unknown chapter of America’s early musical history, Émigré shares the complex stories of asylum seekers to the United States during the French and Haitian Revolutions. French nobles, planters, free people of all backgrounds, and the musicians they patronized-such as the clarinetist Mr. Beranger—sought safety from the violence of the French (1789–1799) and Haitian (1791–1804) Revolutions. Consequently, the United States experienced a French cultural explosion in the last decade of the 18th century as waves of self-imposed exiles poured into ports up and down the East Coast. Featuring works by André Grétry, Ignace Pleyel, Michel Yost, and others, Émigré takes its inspiration directly from historic concerts performed in America such as a 1793 benefit for an orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina and a 1798 performance featuring “the best musicians from Boston.”

Formed during the Spring of 2023, Wit’s Folly is an ensemble of highly experienced historical performance specialists based in Cleveland, Ohio that create engaging, energetic, and historically inspired performances using period instruments. Specializing in chamber music from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the members of Wit’s Folly are dedicated to delivering unique musical experiences that interpret the past, inspire the present, and illuminate the future.

Wit’s Folly is a BLEMF Emerging Ensemble.

7:15pm | Pre-Concert discussion with Lindsay Weaver, specialist in 19th-century French music & culture.

FAR Center for Contemporary Arts 505 W. 4th Street