PRESS RELEASE: FLORALIA: A May Day Festival May 2-4, 2025
For Immediate Release
April 8, 2025
ALKEMIE’S INAUGURAL FLORALIA FESTIVAL INCLUDES PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF SIR ORFEO AND A MAY DAY CELEBRATION
Medieval music ensemble Alkemie premieres an old tale perfect for a spring evening. Almost seven hundred years ago, a London contemporary of the young Chaucer recorded a Celtic-inspired version of ancient Orpheus myth in which our our hero visits the realm of the Fairies rather than the spirits of the underworld. Ben Matus’s arrangement of the Middle English legend reworks 14th-century English sources to set Sir Orfeo to music. This premiere is part of Alkemie’s Floralia festival, which concludes on Sunday, May 4 with a free, family-friendly May Day celebration in Prospect Park.
Key Takeaways:
Alkemie presents its inaugural Floralia Festival celebrating May Day across Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The premiere of Sir Orfeo on May 2 and May 3 is a Chaucer-era retelling the Orpheus legend set to medieval English music.
The festival culminates in a family-friendly, medieval-style celebration in Prospect Park on May 4 with music, theater performances, May Day dancing, and more.
MAY 2-4, 2025
Sir Orfeo
Friday, May 2 @ 7:30pm
Location: All Saints Episcopal
230 E 60th St, NYC 10022
Sir Orfeo
Saturday, May 3 @ 7:30pm
Location: Jalopy Theatre
315 Columbia St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
May Day Celebration
Sunday, May 4 from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: The Peristyle, Prospect Park
Parkside Ave & Parade Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11215
PRESS FOLDER (Alkemie Bios & Press Photos)
PROJECT WEBPAGE
Early music ensemble Alkemie will present a festival weekend of performances and celebrations May 2-4, 2025. Friday and Saturday will feature two world-premiere performances of Sir Orfeo. 270 years before the very first opera set the story of Orpheus’ journey to the underworld, the Breton text of the “Lai of Sir Orfeo” was recorded in the Auchinleck Manuscript. In this version of the legend, Orpheus visits the realm of the Fae rather than the underworld. Alkemie core member Ben Matus sets the Middle English Lai in its original language (with projected subtitles) through re-worked contemporaneous music. The myth, which continued in an unbroken tradition until at least the 19th century in the Northern Islands (Shetland and Orkney Islands), touches on modern themes of “otherness” and examines a reconciliation where the Fae incorporate themselves into the human world without being subsumed by it. As Matus explains, “I was driven by the uniqueness of Sir Orfeo and how that relates to British medieval music and experience. The classical underworld and deities are replaced with the fairies popular to this day in British folklore and Romantasy novels alike. The medieval retelling’s focus on otherness and reconciliation feels both timeless and timely.”
The weekend will conclude with a free, family-friendly May Day celebration in Prospect Park, near Alkemie’s homebase. Participants are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch to this casual, drop-in event, which will take place near the Peristyle on the south side of the Park. May Day is a celebration of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, and Alkemie’s inaugural iteration will include a guided May Day dance, a demonstration of non-amplified medieval instruments (fiddle, recorder, small harp), a May Day trivia scavenger hunt, optional participation in short scenes from a medieval play, and face painting.
Akemie invites all festival attendees to come dressed in the spirit of your favorite mythical creature!
Alkemie co-directors Sian Ricketts and Tracy Cowart have lived in Flatbush for the last ten years and deeply value the community there. “The strong culture of picnicking and celebrating in Prospect Park inspired us to bring our own free event to the site - we can’t wait to celebrate medieval music and the springtime in our favorite park.”
About Alkemie
A restless collective of medieval experimentalists, the Flatbush-based band Alkemie recently gained recognition beyond Brooklyn with their soundtrack for the video game Pentiment (directed by Obsidian studios and published by Xbox) and their dream-pop / shoegaze / psychedelic rock album of troubadour texts, a fine companion. Comprised singer-performers playing two dozen instruments–including vielles (early fiddles), harps, psaltery, scheitholt (early zither), recorders, douçaines & dulcians (early double reeds), bagpipes, and percussion, they have been presented locally and nationally by the Amherst Early Music Festival, Arizona Early Music Society, Brooklyn Public Library, Cambridge Society for Early Music, Capitol Early Music Series, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Johns Hopkins Program in Arts, Humanities & Health, Music Before 1800, and the European Early Music Network virtual Early Music Day festival. Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit in 2018, Alkemie presents its own NYC-based concert series as well as touring and recording.
About Ben Matus
Arranger and curator of Sir Orfeo, Ben Matus, enjoys a varied career in music: he brings music to life regardless of whether it was written in the Middle Ages or yesterday. Ben performs with early music groups on various bassoons and dulcians along the East Coast—including Early Music New York, New York Baroque Incorporated, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Clarion Society, Opera Lafayette, The Handel and Haydn Society, and more. In addition to his performances in concert halls, Ben plays and sings for the Chivalrous Crickets, a band focused on the folk traditions of the British Isles, America, and their early music roots. Ben began his musical training as a boy soprano in a church choir in Bucks County, PA and continued on to receive a BM from the Eastman School of Music and a MM from the Juilliard School. On this project, he states, “I was driven by the uniqueness of Sir Orfeo and how that relates to British medieval music and experience. The classical underworld and deities are replaced with the fairies popular to this day in British folklore and Romantasy novels alike. The medieval retelling’s focus on otherness and reconciliation feels both timeless and timely.”
Contact Us:
For Alkemie:
Zack Plaster, Marketing Manager
Email: zack@alkemie.org
Cell: 646-397-3731
Tracy Cowart, Co-Managing Director
Email: tracy@alkemie.org
Sian Ricketts, Co-Managing Director
Email: sian@alkemie.org
