Early Music Day 2026 @Schola, Hochschule für Musik Basel

Early Music Day is a celebration of more than a millennium of music, through concerts and events taking place simultaneously around the world. Early Music Day is a focal point for promoting historical musical heritage in Europe. Each year, an ambassador represents the day, and hundreds of participants add their events to the official programme for the day, which becomes a global celebration!

Early music is a central part of the cultural heritage shared by Europeans, closely connected with other artistic expressions such as dance, theatre, and architecture. It spans more than 1000 years of music, written down or transmitted by oral tradition, from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century. While some of the composers of these eras are widely known, there is a large repertoire still to be re-discovered by today’s audiences. The Early Music Day aims to increase awareness of the music from the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods and bring it to the attention of a wider audience.

Early Music Day is a REMA project, launched in 2013, initiated by its past president Peter Pontvik. REMA, the official promoter and coordinator of the celebration, is the representative network for Early Music in Europe, composed by 216 members in over 29 countries. The network and its members organise concerts, conferences, and other events under the Early Music Day heading, but the celebration is of course open to every organisation and partner interested in joining! Early Music Day is an important online event as well, with concerts being live streamed, reaching audiences in the whole world.

Early Music Day is made possible thanks to the invaluable support and collaboration of a vast network of European and international partners. We are deeply grateful for the commitment of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the European Association of Conservatories (AEC), the FEDORA platform, Early Music America, GEMA Asociación de Grupos Españoles de Música Antigua, France Festivals and the European Music Council. We are also honoured to have the patronage of the Council of Europe, under the auspices of the Secretary General, Mr Alain Berset.

In addition, we sincerely thank our media partners – La Lettre du Musicien, Il Giornale della Musica and Total Baroque – whose support plays an essential role in spreading the richness, diversity and vitality of Early Music Day to audiences in Europe and beyond.