In this article series, together with Sustainable EEEMERGING and its partners, we explore Early music across Europe – and the challenges faced by young artists in various countries across the continent. What is the condition of Early music today?
This article was supported by Händel-Festspiele Göttingen.
Jasmin Binde is working on getting louder. Several times a day, the young Bavarian soprano practices a vocal exercise designed to turn up the volume. The reason for this steady crescendo? This summer, after a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education, another in Vocal Studies, a Masters in Flute and another Master’s in Voice, all at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater/University of Music & Drama, she will – after eight years (and possibly quite a lot of noodle suppers) finally make it out into the open and a career as a soloist. Or maybe as half a soloist and half a professional choral singer, she’s undecided. Maybe opera, too, she has some feelers out, but most of all she’s looking forward to trying things to see what happens. Her voice – she is 25 – is still finding its métier.
Like that of many singers, Binde’s career trajectory so far has been indirect. “You cannot start singing so early,” she explains, on a video call from Munich. “I started at the Bavarian Youth Choir when I was 16 and my teacher there said to me, yes, maybe it will be OK, but you have to improve and so on.” At that time her dream was to be a harpist. “My parents bought me a big concert harp when I was 17 and they said “We buy you this one, but then you have to study it. So that was it.” Many parent-chauffeurs will sympathise but, to be fair, she was also studying the flute, altogether easier to transport.
Quite sensibly, Binde began her studies in Music Education so as to have a steady job to fall back on should things not work out, but her experiences in the Bavarian Youth Choir, which she describes as “a family” turned out to be formative, and a spur towards a more creative life. “We had three weeks every year when we would practise and have voice lessons, as well as drama lessons. We all had an opera aria and we would go to a teacher and stage it together. It was such a nice experience.” And quite competitive: “There were 70 young people the same age as I was and every one of us wanted to be the best.”
Like many of her colleagues in the choir, Binde eventually realised that singing was going to be her thing, and, having already graduated twice, embarked on another round of studies in Munich, this time in voice, under the tutelage of German bass-baritone Andreas Schmidt. Somewhere along the way, Early music came calling.
“It’s actually just happened over the last year. I had lots of projects at the university and with other choirs and different vocal ensembles. And so I just came to Early music. I sung, for example, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen last year. And then afterwards Dido and Aeneas.” Both performances were in Bavaria: Ingolstadt and Munich. “Then I went to the Balthasar Neumann Academy in Hamburg and I just got to know some more musicians – some from Munich actually – who studied Baroque music, Baroque violin and harpsichord, and we formed an ensemble for the Göttingen Handel competition.” This proved something of a success, as Binde’s international ensemble, Les Fleurs du Bien (Lin Ling, flute; Valeriia Kustitska, violin; Claudia Cecchinato, cello; Adam Riha, theorbo; and Veronika Sazonova, harpsichord) came away with the 2025 Bärenreiter Urtext Prize, and were praised by the jury for the quality of their dramaturgy and interpretation.
For Binde, it’s the freedom and lightness of touch of the Baroque repertoire that appeals. “I love Early music very much because I feel so free there. You can do any ornamentation you want.” She also loves contemporary repertoire, and Mozart. “Bel canto is maybe not for me at the moment, it might come at some time but I’m not sure. I don’t have a big Wagner soprano…” I ask politely if she’d really want it? “Most of the very well-known artists have very big voices, and I guess that will never be possible for me. But that’s OK. Mozart is very nice for my voice.” The Queen of the Night aside, the Concert Arias are favourites, thought they can be demanding to learn and a work-out to perform. She’s currently preparing Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle. “It’s 8 minutes long and that’s quite challenging for me.”
Whether she’s working in the Baroque, contemporary or classical repertoire, there’s always a lot to remember and a plenty more to learn. Repetition is the key. “A few weeks ago I did the Dulcissime in Carmina Burana and it was my first time. You know that last part where it goes to the D? I did that, like, twenty times a day and thought “yes, that’s getting better”. Carl Orff – himself an alumnus of Munich’s Hochschule – would certainly approve.
It’s unlikely that top D’s will present much of a challenge for Binde as she graduates into Germany’s crowded Early music scene, but there is the perennial uncertainty of a freelance career, and the need to attract sufficient audiences to make it work. Ironically, though, her first thought is on transportation. “The first thing is the instruments. It’s sometimes very difficult to transport a harpsichord! Lots of people have pianos and so on. But harpsichords are never there.” An opportunity for a fan who no longer has to transport a concert harp, perhaps? “The other thing is freelancing is not that easy at the moment. Maybe it gets better, but I think most of the ensembles do project-based work. There are a few orchestras like Akamus in Berlin, but most people are freelancers. You have to be very informed about everything; that’s a high level of specialisation but of course that’s also something very positive.”
To get a broader perspective on the situation in Germany, I put a few questions to Jochen Schäfsmeier, Intendant of the Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, at whose affiliated competition Binde has been recently successful. “The competitions in Innsbruck, Göttingen, Yorck and Leipzig can certainly continue to boost careers,” Schäfsmeier says. “Residencies at festivals are also significant – perhaps precisely because they are a kind of pre-selection process for organisers.” Beyond these opportunities, the market and landscape has grown significantly in the past few decades.
“In my opinion,” Schäfsmeier says, “historical performance practice has left its niche and earned its place in the programmes of concert organisers. The standard of musicians and ensembles has risen enormously: hardly any work in the standard repertoire fails to be playable on historical instruments these days.” But this expansion has had a marked effect on the repertoire itself. “20 years ago, criteria such as ‘rediscovery’ and ‘world premiere recording’ promoted sales, countertenors were admired, and virtuoso instrumental concertos suffered from intonation or technical flaws.” Today the situation is different. “Concert programmes are presented more within a dramaturgical framework: we now also look to so-called Early music for answers to the social questions of our time. The artists of the younger generation seem to be taking up this challenge with imaginative and interesting programmes.”
Still the challenge is considerable, especially for beginning ensembles trying to differentiate themselves. Schäfsmeier is blunt: “I believe that ensembles need to focus more on the market and their customers: for which organiser, ie., for which audience, am I putting together this or that programme? Or in other words, how do I have to put together a programme so that it will be considered by this or that organiser? This question goes far beyond the quality of the performance; it places comprehensive entrepreneurial demands on the artists.”
It is in this distinctly entrepreneurial context that the need for schemes like S-EEEMERGING comes into focus, designed to aid beginning ensembles to establish themselves in a sustainable manner, financially and artistically. For Schäfsmeier, ensembles taking up unusual programming ideas, working with choreographers, lighting and other visual elements “only works because the musical quality is so high”.
For Binde, as someone still performing largely to young audiences within the university, it’s difficult to make sage pronouncements on the diversity of audiences for Early music in the Germany as a whole. “But,” she says, “we have a very dense landscape in general, in all music and of course also lots of festivals and academies.” There are plenty of initiatives, too, involving the very young and the very old – making music in primary schools and care homes is all part of the mix. “And it’s important to stage new formats – like light shows, for example. The repertoire is getting bigger and bigger. I think because everyone wants to find something new and do something new. I guess there's always something that has to be more than just music. Last year with the Fairy Queen we had a breakdance company and of course this was very interesting for younger people, it made so much fun. I think you can combine these things with Early music.”
But the most immediate challenge is the dreaded flu season. What does she do to avoid it? “Wear a mask on public transport, drink lots of ginger tea and take honey and lemon in the evening”. It’s good advice: but then, strength and sweetness might just be Jasmin Binde’s signature pairing.
See upcoming performances of Early music in Germany.
Sustainable EEEMERGING is funded by the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This article was sponsored by Centre culturel de rencontre d’Ambronay.
