About

Newly-formed early music ensemble Alkemie specializes in medieval music for voices and instruments. We especially enjoy the porous boundaries between the “high” and “low” music of this period – traversed repeatedly from clerics penning bawdy Latin poems in manuscript margins to courtly lovers evoking the mystical sublime.

Praised by the New York Times as “the real attraction” with a voice that is “light and lithe,” Tracy Cowart (mezzo-soprano) has performed with a number of period ensembles, including the American Classical Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, La Donna Musicale, Exsultemus, Musica Pacifica, Opera Lafayette, the Newberry Consort, Newton Baroque, Three Notch’d Road, and the Washington Bach Consort. Also known for her interpretations of music from the 20th and 21st centuries, she performs with Great Noise Ensemble and has appeared at the Richmond Festival of Music. Tracy received her M.M. in Early Music from the Longy School of Music and her D.M.A. in Historical Performance Practice from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She is also an avid forager, with a particular interest in mycology.

David McCormick (vielle) is an experienced performer and educator of medieval, baroque, and modern strings in Charlottesville, Virginia. His degrees in music education and performance from Shenandoah University and CWRU include specialized training in chamber music and historical performance. As a violinist, David has performed with the Duke Vespers Ensemble, The Columbian Consort (GWU faculty baroque ensemble), and the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia. David recently performed solo Bach and Biber for the lunchtime series at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, DC. David is co-founder of the Charlottesville-based early music group Three Notch’d Road.

Elena Mullins (soprano) Elena Mullins is a soprano with wide-ranging interests in the field of early music. In this summer's issue of EMAg, she was the featured artist in the "Early to Rise" column. She performed at the Boston Early Music Festival this June with Three Notch'd Road in "Dowland's England," and was also the solo dancer with the Case Western Reserve University Baroque Ensemble. Elena has sung with Chicago's Newberry Consort, Apollo's Fire, Generation Harmonique, Quire Cleveland, and has attended the American Bach Soloists Academy, Urbino Early Music, the Madison Early Music Festival and the Vancouver Early Music Festival. This summer Elena completed her DMA in historical performance practice at Case Western Reserve University, where she studied with Ellen Hargis.

Sian Ricketts (soprano, recorders) enjoys a multi-faceted career as a singer and a period woodwinds specialist. As a soprano soloist, Ms. Ricketts has recently performed in C.P.E Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and Bach’s St. Mark Passion. In demand as a consort and ensemble singer, Ms. Ricketts has appeared with Quire Cleveland, and with the choirs of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, as well as the Newberry Consort Women’s Vocal Ensemble. Ms. Ricketts was also a member of the acclaimed Apollo’s Singers, the resident chorus of the Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, for six years. Performing on Baroque oboe, recorders, and shawm, recent engagements include concerts with the Newberry Consort (IL), Bach Collegium Fort Wayne (IN), Denton Bach Society (TX), Queen City Musicians (WA), and Baroque Band (IL). Ms. Ricketts holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University with concentrations in voice and baroque oboe. She has also earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Northwestern University.

Niccolo Seligmann (vielle) recently obtained a performance degree in viola da gamba at the Peabody Institute, studying with John Moran and Tina Chancey. Niccolo has performed with the Baltimore Baroque Band, the Broken Consort, Hesperus, the Peabody Consort, the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, and the Peabody Consort of Viols. He is also a founding member of Divisio, an ensemble featuring vielle, gamba, plucked strings, and percussion. Awards include a Johns Hopkins University Provost Research Award to study and research vielle technique and literature, and a Viola da Gamba Society of America grant to study viol in Orte, Italy, and the Elaine Adair Medieval Scholarship to attend Sequentia’s Medieval Program in Vancouver.

Music

Ay mi! Dame de valour - Guillaume de Machaut

Rose, liz, printemps - Guillaume de Machaut

Ecco la primavera - Francesco Landini

O Rosa Bella - Johnnes Ciconia

De ce que foul pense - Pierre des Molins

Par droit je puis bien complaindre et gemir - Guillaume Dufay

Biaute paree de valour - Machaut

Ma belle dame souverainne - Dufay

Reveilles vous Dufay

Chanter ne scay - Hugo de Lantins

Non ara may pieta - Landini

Io crido Amor - Ciconia/Seligmann

Je me complains - Dufay

Donnes l’assault a la fortresse - Dufay

Audio

Past groupmuses (4)