East Coast Tour
April 29-May 1, 2022
Live concerts in Bethesda (MD), NYC, and Providence (RI)
In spring 2022 Alkemie joins with special guests Shira Kammen (composer, vielle), Fiona Gillespie (medieval flute, voice), and Spiff Wiegand (percussion) to reprise and expand this acclaimed program
The musical event will also include related readings and hand-made “Intersensory Program Cards” that pair Hildegard’s music, texts, and associated images with materials that the audience can literally smell, taste, touch, and hear.
Friday, April 29, 2022 at 7:00pm
Music at Redeemer
6201 Dunrobbin Drive
Bethesda, MD 20816
Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 7:30
The Brick Presbyterian Church
62 E. 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
Sunday, May 1, 2022 at 3:30pm
Museum Concerts of Rhode Island
St. Joseph Church
92 Hope St, Providence, RI 02906
Watch a snippet from Alkemie's debut performance of this program!
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Mystic, medic, and musician, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) 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 program situates Hildegard’s music within her understanding of medieval pharmacognosy (i.e. plant medicine), sharing her vision of an earth-bound transcendence that connects humans to the divine through spiritual "greening" and the five senses. Her beliefs are mirrored in the music she wrote for her nuns—ecstatic chants in which unfurling branches, earthbound roots, and medicinal spices are depicted in soaring melodies that swirl throughout an almost three-octave range.
PERFORMERS
Tracy Cowart (voice & harps), Fiona Gillespie (voice, medieval flute), Shira Kammen (voice, vielle, composer), David McCormick (vielle), Elena Mullins (voice), Niccolo Seligmann (vielles, psaltery, scheitholt) Sian Ricketts (voice, recorders, douçaines), Alyssa Weathersby (voice), and Spiff Wiegand (percussion).
All venues are accessible, please contact us if you have questions.
This program was created in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Program in Arts, Humanities, & Health and supported by the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies.
Alkemie's NYC Concerts are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
