Early Music at FIU encompasses several dimensions that all lead to greater familiarity with music prior to 1800 for the FIU and greater South Florida communities. We offer early music concerts on-campus at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center as well as more intimate events at The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum and off-campus often in collaboration with the Miami Bach Society in Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, the Design District, and in West Palm Beach with Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Early Music Ensemble, and other arts organizations. Early music is also an essential component of the FIU music major’s curriculum. FIU is one of the few universities in the country to offer a two-year four-course music history sequence including one full year dedicated to pre-1800 music. Additionally we offer annual performance practice seminars in early music topics such as performance practice, performance styles, and tuning & temperaments.
Our primary early music ensemble, which is open to FIU music majors and community members, is the Collegium Musicum. It is supported by one of the state’s largest collections of replicas of early instruments and library holdings including the only complete copy of RISM in the State of Florida. We also offer Viol Class throughout the entire school year. While our early music activities are most prominent during semesters in which Collegium Musicum is offered, throughout the school year Collegium Musicum members preform early music in conjunction with other FIU School of Music ensembles and in a steady stream of undergraduate and graduate student recitals. Collegium Musicum also participates in broader FIU initiatives such as the month-long events surrounding the Frost Museum’s exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio in February 2016 and the annual conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, hosted by the FIU School of Music in April 2016.
The early music area is led by the Music History Area Coordinator, performance practice specialist, and lutenist Dr. David Dolata. FIU students are regularly exposed to early music guest artists and academics through special classes and master classes. Recent guests include Hopkinson Smith, Stewart Carter, Anthony Newman, Victor Coelho, Robert Crowe, Alison Crum and Roy Marks, and Jose Vazquez.
You can read more about Early Music at FIU by exploring the many menu items this website has to offer, and our homepage keeps you up-to-date with our latest activities. We look forward to seeing you at our next event.