About This Space

The Cincinnati Early Music Festival

The latest iteration of the Cincinnati Early Music Festival, revived in 2024, rests on the shoulders of those that came before. The original Festival set sail under the aegis of Catacoustic Consort, an early music chamber ensemble. Christopher Wilke stepped in to run the event, renamed the Cincinnati Early Music Celebration, for a couple of years after one of Catacoustic’s key members moved to Germany and before the Covid-19 pandemic put large gatherings on pause.

So why revive the Cincinnati Early Music Festival for a third time? Quite simply, we believe this Festival is a treasured cultural institution that needed to be brought back. In a city with the size, standing, and arts scene that Cincinnati has, early music presents a growth opportunity. This is particularly true for young people. What we’re exposed to, what we can access, is what we have the opportunity to enjoy and pursue. So let’s provide as many opportunities to learn to love early music as possible!

The Festival Vision

In the broadest sense, our vision is to build a music community shaped like a horseshoe, not a circle. We want the Cincinnati Early Music Festival to be accessible and welcoming to the entire community, no matter who you are—not just to the small portion of Cincinnatians who have an early music degree. We want to create a space where the CCM grad and the lawyer who loves French Baroque opera and the high school student who just discovered Machaut can come together and enjoy early music side by side.

The Website Vision

Our ultimate vision for this website goes beyond just sharing Festival events each February. We want to provide a year-round hub for early music performances in the Cincinnati area that brings together concerts already happening in one easy-to-find place.

What’s the Difference?

It may seem like there’s little point in having a Festival month if this site includes concerts throughout the whole year. There are two main aspects that set the Festival apart. The first is Festival-specific events like the Tapestry Concert, Nerd Night, the Sing-A-Long, and the Early Music Edition of Classical Revolution. The second is marketing. In addition to the fact that our community knows to keep an eye out for February as Early Music Month, we share events that are part of the Festival on social media and list them in local publications. So there’s benefit to audiences and performers alike to both facets of this space!

Who Is “We”?

Though the Cincinnati Early Music Festival is made possible by the efforts of many (want to join us?), the driving forces behind this third iteration are Krista Cornish Scott and Erin Sigmund. Krista is a professional musician and the director of Heri et Hodie, an intimate treble voice ensemble that revels in both medieval and modern music with an emphasis on the work of women composers. Erin, who does marketing for a local nonprofit by day, has long referred to herself as an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to music. They share a love for Hildegard von Bingen and a desire to build an inclusive, supportive, and welcoming community around early music in Cincinnati.