John Romey, who was a student of Nicholas Walker at Ithaca College, began studies toward a DMA in Historical Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University in the fall of 2011. He received a prestigious and generous assistantship to support his studies. Case Western offers a superb program in performance practice, and John will be able to combine his interests in performance and historical musicology in this program.

John also was accepted as one of a select number of musicians to perform in the Festival Ensemble at Early Music America’s Young Performer Festival in the summer of 2011.  He was selected to perform on violone (a six string contrabass viol with moveable gut frets and played with an underhand bow) in the ensemble, which will be comprised of 32 outstanding students from around the continent. The ensemble performed under the direction of Scott Metcalfe, director of the acclaimed vocal ensemble Blue Heron. The EMA Young Performers Festival took place June 13-18, 2011, at First Church of Boston and First Lutheran Church of Boston, in conjunction with the Boston Early Music Festival. As EMA celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, the organization continues to recognize that the future of early music rests in the hands of today’s young performers and the institutions that shape them.