Panoply at Jalopy!

Alkemie returns to the Jalopy stage to perform music from their album A FINE COMPANION with opening sets by friends Sibyl and Smoke Ring— two groups who also embrace experimentation with historic music tradition.

ALKEMIE and its sister ensemble FREELANCE NUN collaborated to create A FINE COMPANION, a program of newly-composed settings of troubadour songs and texts, written in a dream-pop / shoegaze / psychedelic rock style for an amplified combination of medieval and new instruments. The texts of this project were chosen by Charles Mueller (composer) and the ensemble, with a focus on troubadour lyrics that expand or refute the standard tropes of chivalrous love by choosing poems from a feminine perspective, and by delving into the metaphysical and spiritual subsets of the genre. The unbridled sensuality of the arrangements creates space for a raw experience that inspires a visceral reaction in the listener. Mueller has used pre-existing troubadour music as a melodic and modal prompt on a number of pieces, with direct quotations organically morphing as if in an inspired game of telephone.

SIBYL is a folk duo from New York City formed by Chloe and Lily Holgate, two sisters that draw inspiration from the ancient tradition of the Sibyls—prophetic women of the ancient world who foretold the future through poetry and song. Blending their love for storytelling with their classical foundations, they refract traditional folk music through a contemporary, emotive light. Sibyl has performed on chamber music series around the northeast, at rock music venues around the city and many house concerts for small audiences—their favorite venues!  Sibyl has been a resident artist at Avaloch Music Institute, and in 2022 they were winners of WNYC's Public Song Project. 

SMOKE RING is a mixed voice barbershop and contemporary a cappella quartet based in New York, NY pushing the limits of what’s possible in barbershop with a lot of sass and sparkle. Made up of Rebecca Eckes (tenor), Stephanie “Tags” Taglianetti (lead), Gabriel Spector (bass), and Alexander Ronneberg (baritone), their humble beginnings began behind a curtain in Charlotte, NC, where they tucked away for some privacy to ring chords in a crowded room. They made things official in 2023, the same year they took first in Voices of Gotham’s Tin Pan Alley novice quartet contest. Their rapid ascent continued in 2024, when they became the first-ever mixed voice quartet to win the Mid-Atlantic District quartet competition and placed 9th at their debut at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2024 International quartet contest—making them the highest-ranked mixed voice quartet in the world.

A Worthy Mirror

screening party

Join members of Alkemie for the premiere screening of their new concert film, A Worthy Mirror. The screening will take place at “The Secret Loft” in Ridgewood, near the Halsey street subway stop (L). Exact address will be distributed to ticketholders ahead of the event.

A WORTHY MIRROR represents a time-traveling dialogue with the 12th-century trobairitz–the feminine counterpart of the poet-composers known as troubadours. Together with Forward Music Project, we are commissioning eleven female and non-binary composers to respond to and converse with the 36 extant trobairitz texts (of which we only have music for one). This body of lyric poetry represents a large group of historically female and anonymous femme voices in the literary tradition. Witty, ironic, heartbreaking, and erotic—these texts present a mirror to reflect upon what feels foreign about the past and what feels familiar, what is the role of gender and self in relationships, and how do we make space for the multiplicities of identity, both in the 12th century and today.

Verdant Medicine

VERDANT MEDICINE celebrates mystic, medic, and musician Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), a medieval polymath who expanded both Christian theology and the humoral theory of Galen to connect the viriditas (living greenness) of plants and the metaphorical viridity of spirituality directly to the human body and its functioning.

This mixed-media concert will include materials that evoke the five senses.

Verdant Medicine

VERDANT MEDICINE celebrates mystic, medic, and musician Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), a medieval polymath who expanded both Christian theology and the humoral theory of Galen to connect the viriditas (living greenness) of plants and the metaphorical viridity of spirituality directly to the human body and its functioning. This mixed-media concert will include materials that evoke the five senses.

For Access to Columbia University: You must register by 9pm the night before the concert (9/25).

Workshop: Trouvère Song & Dance

Berkeley Festival and Exhibition

Join members of Alkemie for this special Renaissance workshop! Whether you sing or play an instrument, there is something for you. And if you don't, you can still dance! In this two-and-a-half hour session, you'll learn some basic Renaissance dance steps, orchestrate an estampie and sing through a motet.

There's no need to prepare beforehand. If you are an instrumentalist, bring an instrument pitched at A=440 and a music stand; some percussion may be provided for singers. All should wear comfortable clothing and footwear for dancing.

Love to My Liking

Berkeley Festival and Exhibition

In this Love to My Liking, Alkemie performs 13th-century trouvère songs, dances, and motets—the majority of which have never before been recorded, and several of which were transcribed by the ensemble from their original manuscripts. Continuing the tradition of the troubadours, the trouvères of Northern France wrote some of the most captivating vocal music of the 13th century. Their songs of public and private adoration wove together allusions both sacred and secular, creating mystical and spicy meditations on love and longing, punctuated by repeating refrains that recur across songs and texts.