The Knoxville Early Music Project: Looking Back on Ten Years of Performing By Thomas Tallant   KEMP, The Knoxville Early Music Project, was founded in 1991 by Mark Kiser (recorders), Thomas Tallant (lute), and Kevin Lay (viola da gamba). The group quickly added a singer (and then a second), and before we knew it we were exploring early music in a serious fashion. Kevin was finishing a music performance degree at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and knew he would be moving on to graduate school soon (Florida State U. and Indiana University's Early Music Institute, as it happened), but the original group stayed together for at least a year. Early on, we all shared a palpable sense of excitement about what we were doing. Very few people in our part of East Tennessee were serious about organizing an ensemble that was committed to playing Renaissance and early Baroque (and even, at times, late Medieval) music. But we had a lot of fun, too, and we took lots of chances. Left to right: Thomas Tallant (lute, theorbo, early guitar), Gail Ann Schroeder (viola da gamba and lirone), Ann Stierli (viola da gamba, flutes, recorders, crumhorns), Amy Kraabel Porter (soprano vocals), and J. Ashley Burell (harpsichord, organ, tenor). So KEMP began to play more and more locally. We picked up work at University events, churches, the newly opened Knoxville Museum of Art, and even the occasional wedding. And we started giving annual recitals at The Laurel Theatre (operated by Jubilee Community Arts, with which we still have a performance agreement) and at Davis-Kidd Bookseller. Over time (a few years) we built up a following -- small but loyal -- that still exists today. However, KEMP doesn't perform in Knoxville as much as we used to. The last four years have seen the group begin to travel to local colleges and universities to give recitals, and most of our performances are now at such venues. I think that originally, the instrumentalists in KEMP were in love with exploring what we could do with our respective instruments (recorder, lute, viol, and other instruments such as cornamuse, traverso, and krumhorn). Singers were the most difficult area to fill, and the group saw a succession of vocalists. And to be fair, the singers in KEMP probably had (and still have) a significantly difficult job. The singer has to be charismatic, has to project a large part of the dramatic message of a program, and has to develop a proper technique and approach to performance practice for the repertoire (and often different repertoires and periods). A very large part of the creative energy in KEMP results from instrumentalists trying understand their relationship to the vocalist, and vice versa. Of late, as we have become more "experienced" and have focused more intensively on a few areas (such as continuo song and more difficult ensemble pieces), this creative energy has become a very important part of the group's success. Creative energy, risk taking, curiosity, discipline, a desire to communicate: These seem to be the main ingredients that keep the KEMP pot boiling. And being organized doesn't hurt, either. We have begun working with a booking agent who does wonders at keeping us organized. Maria Rist (singer).  For the 2008-2009 concert season, KEMP is joined by soprano Maria Magdalena Rist (while Amy Porter has taken a year-long leave of absence). One thing that keeps KEMP so vital is the different backgrounds of the group members. It seems that we never have had a homogenous make up. Ann Stierli (viol, traverso, recorder) and Gail Ann Schroeder (viols of various ranges) have extensive performance experience either freelancing or playing with orchestras (not to ignore teaching and composing); Amy K. Porter (our singer) graduated from Northwestern and Indiana Universities and has sung extensively in all areas of music (opera, modern song, jazz, improvised one-off works by local composers); and I worked for years in folk and electric bands before settling on serious study of lute, theorbo, and baroque guitar. Previous incarnations of KEMP had members with similar breadth of backgrounds and experience. So, where are we today? KEMP still seems to thrive on a love of music we (and often the audience) have never heard before. There are great pieces with which everyone is familiar, but there is so much early music that never gets heard, and we want to explore and program as much of that as possible. The group members comprise a melting pot of ideas and approaches to arranging and playing. We love the sound of the music. We prefer to play for audiences who are new to early music, but we strive for soundness and solidness of performance practice. We don't just want to sound good, we want to be informed about what we are doing. However, as Duke Ellington said, "If it sounds good, it is good." I hope we always remain true to that statement.