Alkemie

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Founded in the spring of 2013 by five friends with a zeal for medieval music, Alkemie’s mission is to share the life-affirming and alternative perspectives to be experienced in the sounds of centuries past.

Join us April 24 & 25 for the premiere of Niccolo Seligmann’s brand new chamber opera, ELEANOR, about the historical fig...
04/19/2026

Join us April 24 & 25 for the premiere of Niccolo Seligmann’s brand new chamber opera, ELEANOR, about the historical figure Eleanor Rykener, who was arrested in 1394 while presenting as a woman. While it is impossible to fully understand Rykener’s life and experience from one court document, Seligmann uses this starting-off point to explore themes of acceptance, identity, and gender in medieval England, incorporating texts by contemporaries Christine de Pisan (1364 – c. 1430), Eustache Deschamps (1346-1406), and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (1286 – c. 1328). 

🎟️ Link in bio for tickets

Composer, librettist and Alkemie core member (they/them) is currently the most widely-heard medieval fiddler in the world, featured in soundtracks from Netflix’s The Witcher, Firaxis Games’ Civilization VI, Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment, and many more big-budget and indie games, film, and streaming series. Niccolo’s opera & live theatre music includes Julie Monster: A Q***r Baroque Opera, An Iliad, Minerva: Times Change, and a full-length electronic dance remix of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet. They perform diverse genres nationally with early & traditional music ensembles Alkemie, The Broken Consort, Concordian Dawn, Eya, Hesperus, Washington Bach Consort, and Wherligig. When not touring with their ensembles or recording soundtracks, Niccolo can be found gleefully recording harsh noise, lo-fi dance music, glitchcore, and drone metal in their home studio in the forests of central Maryland.

Meet Eleanor Rykener, a gender non-conforming Londoner who was arrested in 1394 in London’s Cheapside and left the court...
04/16/2026

Meet Eleanor Rykener, a gender non-conforming Londoner who was arrested in 1394 in London’s Cheapside and left the courts confused.

This brand new opera by Alkemie core-member brings Eleanor to life and examines identity, gender, and belonging in the medieval world. Blending early music with a contemporary lens and starring non-binary soprano .soprano in the title role, we’re excited to share this wild, real-life story with you all.

Come see this brand new opera, Eleanor, on April 24 & 25 at the New Stage Performance Space on the Upper West Side.

🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and more information

An interview with Eleanor composer Niccolo Seligmann - *|https://www.alkemie.org/news/eleanor-interview-niccolo-seligman...
04/13/2026

An interview with Eleanor composer Niccolo Seligmann - *|https://www.alkemie.org/news/eleanor-interview-niccolo-seligmann|*

"In a time where trans rights are under direct attack, this show reminds us all that q***r and trans people have always been part of the social tapestry, and that resistance to violence is a core part of our experience, both in the past and today...."

✵✵ Tickets are limited - Reserve yours now for April 24 & 25! ✵✵

Thank you all for coming out to the for “What’s Your Sign?” earlier this month!!We hope the stars have been treating yo...
03/30/2026

Thank you all for coming out to the for “What’s Your Sign?” earlier this month!!

We hope the stars have been treating you well since then ✷⚝✹★✵✯

Enjoy some photos of the concert!

03/06/2026

Catch a glimpse of us rehearsing “Vacillantis trutine”, a beautiful and yearning melody from Carmina Burana.

“Poised on a quivering scale, the mind fluctuating and suspended anxiously, tosses and turns, dividing itself into wave-like impulses.

Reason wants that I give my time to study, but when Love wants another occupation I feel torn. With Reason fighting against Venus, I’m the sufferer.

Oh how I languish! I see the cause and can’t avoid it.
I am undone with my eyes open.”

What’s Your Sign? premieres tonight at .tavern.

🎟️ : for tickets, follow the link in our bio

ALKEMIE:
(voice)
(organistrum)
(harp)
(vielle)
(tiny percussion)
(lyre)

“and much of this could be written of the children of the Moon ☾, but I leave it here unsaid. Cancer ♋️ resembles, says ...
03/04/2026

“and much of this could be written of the children of the Moon ☾, but I leave it here unsaid. Cancer ♋️ resembles, says the master, water, midnight, north.”

“for Ta**us ♉️ is likened to the earth, for it is dry, nocturnal and particular… Ta**us belongs to the south.”

Meet the artists: Ben and David were born under signs that balance each other out! According to the Liber Synonimorum, when the sun is Ta**us it is a bad time to start war, let blood from the arms, or build anything to do with water… all of these are recommended when the sun is Cancer!

Join Alkemie on March 6th at the as we premiere a new program inspired by the medieval Zodiac, “What’s Your Sign?” with good friend, and early music luminary, Shira Kammen.

🎟️: for tickets, follow our link in bio
📸:

Sources:
Miscellany: Anatomical-Physicological Description of Men; Liber Synonimorum; Descriptions of Planets, Zodiacs, and Comets; Treatises on Divination from Names, etc.
Shortly after 1464, unknown artist/maker, Michael Haintzmann of Babenhausen (German), Getty Museum

“When the Sun goes in May into Gemini ♊️ , a child is born in the hour of Mercury: it will become a master of every art ...
03/03/2026

“When the Sun goes in May into Gemini ♊️ , a child is born in the hour of Mercury: it will become a master of every art and learns what it sees, for it is of light disposition and steadfast with words, and its sense are moveable like the air. Gemini is likened to the air, from the Sun’s rising and setting 🌅. When the sun is in this sign it is a good time to forge friendships and to unify.”

Meet the artists: While Niccolo and Ellie are not actual twins, how fun is it that Alkemie has two Gemini members who were born on the same day?

Join Alkemie on March 6th at the as we premiere a new program inspired by the medieval Zodiac, “What’s Your Sign?” with good friend, and early music luminary, Shira Kammen.

🎟️: for tickets, follow our link in bio
📸:

Sources:
Miscellany: Anatomical-Physicological Description of Men; Liber Synonimorum; Descriptions of Planets, Zodiacs, and Comets; Treatises on Divination from Names, etc.
Shortly after 1464, unknown artist/maker, Michael Haintzmann of Babenhausen (German), Getty Museum

“And when the Sun 🌞 goes in March into Aries ♈️, a child is born in the hour of Mars: it gains a red countenance and wil...
03/02/2026

“And when the Sun 🌞 goes in March into Aries ♈️, a child is born in the hour of Mars: it gains a red countenance and will be an angry, unlucky person; their nature is bold, evil, violent in strife. They are fiery🔥: with burning, robbery, murder, stabbing, striking…. Aries is a sign which belongs to the east. It is dry and hot.”

Meet the artists: We’re excited to welcome back our friend and frequent collaborator, Shira Kammen! While she’s a bold and blazing musician, we think the Liber Synonimorum is a bit harsh to our Aries friends!

Join Alkemie on March 6th at the as we premiere a new program inspired by the medieval Zodiac, “What’s Your Sign?” with good friend, and early music luminary, Shira Kammen.

🎟️: for tickets, follow our link in bio

Sources:
Miscellany: Anatomical-Physicological Description of Men; Liber Synonimorum; Descriptions of Planets, Zodiacs, and Comets; Treatises on Divination from Names, etc.
Shortly after 1464, unknown artist/maker, Michael Haintzmann of Babenhausen (German), Getty Museum

Alkemie premieres "What's Your Sign?" with Shira Kammen this Friday 🎶 *https://www.alkemie.org/events*“I love doing musi...
03/02/2026

Alkemie premieres "What's Your Sign?" with Shira Kammen this Friday 🎶
*https://www.alkemie.org/events*

“I love doing music in collaboration…. The musical language of the medieval style is something I find very poignant. In terms of nuts and bolts, it is a play of consonance and dissonance, always a tension and a resolution. All music is that to some extent, but with medieval and other modal music, it happens in a remarkably clear, and almost physical way...

“If a child is born… when the Sun 🌞 goes in August into Virgo ♍️ according to the sign, then it will be barren and fruga...
03/01/2026

“If a child is born… when the Sun 🌞 goes in August into Virgo ♍️ according to the sign, then it will be barren and frugal and virtuous and subtle and quiet and masterly in all arts, and becomes learned, chaste, a spiritual person, and is merciful and has compassion with everyone.”

Meet the artists: Tracy and Sian, co-founders of Alkemie, were both born under the sign of Virgo! Do these traits sound like them?

Join Alkemie on March 6th at the as we premiere a new program inspired by the medieval Zodiac, “What’s Your Sign?” with good friend, and early music luminary, Shira Kammen.

🎟️: for tickets, follow our link in bio

📷:

Sources:
Miscellany: Anatomical-Physicological Description of Men; Liber Synonimorum; Descriptions of Planets, Zodiacs, and Comets; Treatises on Divination from Names, etc.
Shortly after 1464, unknown artist/maker, Michael Haintzmann of Babenhausen (German), Getty Museum

✨🌓 What's Your Sign? An interview with Co-Curator & Virgo Tracy Cowart 🌞✨ Can you describe the kinds of music we'll hear...
02/27/2026

✨🌓 What's Your Sign? An interview with Co-Curator & Virgo Tracy Cowart 🌞✨

Can you describe the kinds of music we'll hear in this concert?

"Two different 14th-century manuscripts inspired the content of this concert – our Dutch treatise outlines the sorts of activities in which one should (or should not!) partake when the sun or moon is in a particular position, and our German treatise describes...

read more: https://www.alkemie.org/news/whats-your-sign-interview-tracy-cowart

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