Institute offers opportunity to explore global music

Ancient music is anything but dead as the Jacobs School of Music's Early Music Institute keeps tradition alive.\nFounded in 1979 by the late Thomas Binkley, a lutenist and musicologist, the institute focuses primarily on ancient music and instruments. Binkley acted as director of the Early Music Institute until January 1995.\n"It's a great regret in my life that I never met the man," said Michael McCraw, current director of the Early Music Institute. "But I feel like I can talk about him, because I know so many people on both sides of the ocean that are so greatly influenced by him. He was a man of boundless energy and extraordinary vision." \nBinkley died of cancer on April 28, 1995.\nMcCraw, a world-renowned bassoonist, has done more than 140 recordings, according to the Web site www.music.indiana.edu/som/emi. He became director of the Early Music Institute in the fall of 2004, although he was a visiting professor at IU for seven years. \n"Early music used to refer more than anything else to medieval and Renaissance music," McCraw said. "Now it also includes baroque and classical music. While the EMI's main purpose is to study early or 'ancient' music, ancient music now goes from about 1200 to 1820." \nMcCraw said ancient music is not just a historical endeavor. \n"Some people think we're trying to create something that belongs in a museum," McCraw said. "But we're trying to create something that speaks to them in a more direct way. The historically informed approach ... is important because it creates something moving and beautiful."\nThe EMI has many different visiting teachers that come every semester, McCraw said. All of them specialize in one early musical instrument or another. \n"I feel these visiting teachers are so important because this is one of the best music schools in the world," McCraw said. "But it is in Bloomington, not New York or some place where you have the music world at your feet."\nAdam Wead, a doctoral student, has been in the Early Music Institute for about five years, he said. \n"It's one of the few places in the States that you can go and study this kind of music with some of the best," Wead, a lutenist, said, "You'd have to go to Europe to find anything comparable."\nAfter he is done at EMI, Wead said he will be looking to stay involved in early music. \n"I want to continue performing and also look for jobs teaching early music although they're rare to find," he said.\nIn order for students to get into the Early Music Department as a major they must perform a successful audition, McCraw said. There are many courses offered on an elective basis as well as instruction on early instruments without audition.