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Alkemie (Early Music Ensemble)

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Alkemie is an early music ensemble specializing in medieval music, based in Brooklyn, NY. The ensemble presents an annual concert series in New York City, performs throughout the East Coast, and tours the U.S.[1]

Alkemie’s repertoire extends from tenth-century plainchant to new music, with a focus on the 12th-15th centuries. Alkemie’s members sing as well as play period instruments, including vielles, recorders, hümmelchens, gothic harps (gut-strung diatonic instruments fitted with L-shaped wooden pegs called bray pins) and douçaines (cylindrical-bored double reed instrument family with the range of a 10th). Their experimental use of historical performance practice on the Indianapolis Early Music Festival in June 2018 was called “enchanting” and “indicating [the] future health of the field of early music.”[1]

Alkemie has a particular interest in the porous boundaries between the court and folk music of the medieval period.[1] Alkemie also sets medieval texts to new music and composes historically-inspired musical works.[2]

History[edit]

Alkemie was founded in 2013 by Tracy Cowart, David McCormick, Elena Mullins, Sian Ricketts, and Niccolo Seligmann. From 2013 to 2018, Alkemie presented concerts in VA (in Charlottesville, Staunton, and Richmond) and in Baltimore, MD. During this period, they also performed on concert series in Arlington, VA (Capitol Early Music Series[3]), Stroudsburg, PA (Beacon Hill Concert Series[4]), Amherst, VA (Amherst Glebe Arts Response[5]), and in New York City (Gotham Early Music Scene[6]). They were in residence at Fairmont State University (Fairmont, WV) from 2016-2017.[7]

In 2018, Alkemie incorporated as a non-profit organization in Brooklyn, NY. That year they also began a partnership with Fordham University, with whom they have co-presented several concerts and events, including a screening of a concert of medieval protest music in conjunction with a scholarly roundtable in October 2022.[8] Since 2018, Alkemie has been presented nationally by concert series including the Amherst Early Music Festival, Arizona Early Music Society, Cambridge Society for Early Music (MA), Five Boroughs Music Festival (NY), Johns Hopkins Program in Arts, Humanities & Health, Music Before 1800, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Museum Concerts of Rhode Island (Providence, RI), and the San Francisco Early Music Society.[9][10][11]

Alkemie planned to inaugurate a NYC-based concert series in the spring 2020; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted to a virtual concert series, which continued through the spring of 2021. Starting in the fall of 2021, Alkemie began offering a hybrid virtual-live concert series.[9] In 2022, Alkemie’s program “Like a Woman” was presented virtually by the European Early Music Network virtual Early Music Day festival. [12]

Alkemie’s members also teach medieval and Renaissance performance practice and history. Alkemie has created workshops and educational outreach programs for the Capitol Early Music Series,[13] Ramaz High School (NYC), Brooklyn College, Wesleyan University, and Whitworth University. Alkemie members teach collegiate and amateur students at Case Western Reserve University, Fordham University, the Strathmore Arts Center, Amherst Early Music Festival, Pinewoods, the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, and through the Early Music Access Project.

Special Projects[edit]

Project Details
Pentiment Videogame Alkemie composed, arranged and recorded the music for Obsidian’s historically-inspired narrative adventure video game Pentiment (released on November 15, 2022). Director Josh Sawyer requested that the music for this game be either strictly historical or historically inspired. Sawyer also pointed out that for some that are musically inclined, "you might hear some familiar tunes."[14]
Intersensory Concerts In 2021, Alkemie created intersensory materials for two originally virtually-released concerts – “Florilegium” (botanically-themed music from 16th-century England and France) and “Verdant Medicine” (music and texts by Hildegard von Bingen). “Florilegium” sent audience members custom-made cards with 16th-century botanical images that smell like the herbs and flowers referenced in the music, such as violets, roses, honesuckles, and laurel. For “Verdant Medicine,” audience members were provided with “Intersensory program cards” that paired Hildegard’s music, texts, and associated images with materials that the audience could literally smell, taste, touch, and hear. This virtual concert was also presented in conjunction with a virtual roundtable on medieval music and medicine with guest scholar Victoria Sweet, supported by the Johns Hopkins Program in the Arts, Humanities, and Health and the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.[15]
Historical Dance Two of Alkemie’s programs involve historical dance, performed by ensemble members Tracy Cowart and Elena Mullins Bailey. “Love to My Liking” (13th-century French trouvère songs, motets, and estampies) includes medieval dance, choreographed by Cowart and Mullins Bailey based on near-contemporary sources. “Sweet Friendship” (15th-century courtly music from France and Italy) features early Renaissance dance, also performed by ensemble members Cowart and Mullins Bailey.[16]
Recordings
  • Pentiment soundtrack (not yet released)[17]
  • Fine Companion (not yet released – indie-rock arrangements of troubadour melodies and texts)
  • Love to My Liking (not yet released – 13th-century French songs, motets, and dances)

Members[edit]

Core Members [18][edit]

Guest Artists [18][edit]

  • Elliot Cole (voice, organetto, composer)
  • Fiona Gillespie (voice, medieval flute)
  • Caitlin Hedge (vielle, voice, gittern)
  • Harrison Hintzsche (voice, percussion)
  • Jim Hopkins (organetto, harmonium, synthesizers)
  • Shira Kammen (vielle, harp, composer)
  • Loren Ludwig (viols)
  • Charles Mueller (guitar, bass guitar, lyre, composer)
  • Karl Ronneburg (percussion)
  • Corey Shotwell (voice)
  • Elisa Sutherland (voice, violin)
  • Peter & Sarah Walker (Chapter House – musical & storytelling duo)
  • Alyssa Weathersby (voice, gittern, dancer)
  • Spiff Wiegand (voice, banjo, percussion)

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "About Us". alkemie.
  2. "Touring Programs". alkemie.
  3. https://capitolearlymusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/program-Alkemie-Sweet-Friendship.pdf
  4. "Previous Concerts « Beacon Hill Concerts". Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  5. "Alkemie". Amherst Glebe Arts Response. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  6. "Alkemie - Gotham Early Music Scene, Inc". www.gemsny.org. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  7. "early music ensemble | News | Fairmont State University". fairmontstate.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  8. "Medieval Concert and Roundtable Examine the Impact of 'Singing Truth to Power'". Fordham News.
  9. 9.0 9.1 "Concert History". alkemie. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  10. Writer, Staff. "Cambridge Society for Early Music to host concert". Wicked Local. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  11. "San Francisco Early Music Society – Community-based organization dedicated to increasing public appreciation for historically-informed performance of early music". Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  12. "Early Music Day". Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  13. "efarrell – Capitol Early Music". Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  14. AStretch (2022-08-24). "Pentiment Promises Murder, Mystery, and Art History". TechRaptor. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  15. "VERDANT MEDICINE: Hildegard's Resonant Apothecary – Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine". Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  16. "Touring Programs". alkemie. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  17. "Pentiment showcases medieval era instrumentation by Alkemie Ensemble". The Ongaku. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  18. 18.0 18.1 "ABOUT US". alkemie. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  19. "Tracy Cowart — Mezzo-Soprano. Medeival Harp. Historical Dance". Tracy Cowart. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  20. "David R. McCormick". David R. McCormick. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  21. "Elena Mullins Department of Music | Case Western Reserve University". site:name] | Case Western Reserve University. 2022-08-24. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  22. "NICCOLO SELIGMANN". niccoloseligmann. Retrieved 2022-11-10.

External Links[edit]


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