Five Boroughs Music Festival Presents Alkemie With Composer Elliot Cole, November 23 & 24

Medieval Ensemble Perform World Premiere of Cole’s 

“Beautee & Bountee: An Arthurian Refraction”
Based on the Ancient Tales of King Arthur

NEW YORK, NY (October 15, 2019) — Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents medieval ensemble Alkemie together with composer Elliot Cole for the World Premiere of “Beautee & Bountee: An Arthurian Refraction” on Saturday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m. at The Noble Maritime Collection (1000 Richmond Terrace, Bldg D) on Staten Island and Sunday, November 24 at 4:00 p.m. at Areté Venue & Gallery in Brooklyn (67 West Street).

Combining old words and new music through an original setting of the 14th-century stanzaic romance, Morte Arthur, Cole and Alkemie weave together spoken word, monophonic songs, motets, and instrumental commentary to tell the age-old stories of Arthur, Guenevere and Lancelot – exploring themes of love, honor and duty that still resonate today. Co-commissioned by 5BMF and Alkemie, Cole’s new work features reimagined melodies that are fused and intertwined by Alkemie’s collection of period and modern instruments, including medieval fiddles and reeds, psaltery, recorders, harps, harmonium, guitar, and percussion.

Additional 5BMF performances in the 2019-20 season include a celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with new-music piano trio Longleash in Beethoven Reflections on January 10 and 12; a program presenting Cuban early music ensemble Ars Longa de la Habana on March 18 in collaboration with GEMAS (Gotham Early Music Scene/Americas Society) and the Baryshnikov Arts Center; and Astride Peace and War: John Jenkins, Master of the Musick Art, a multi-concert “mini-festival” exploring the works of English composer John Jenkins, performed by viol consorts Parthenia and LeStrange Viols on May 29, 31, and June 1.

Program Information 

Saturday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Noble Maritime Collection
1000 Richmond Terrace, Bldg D
Staten Island, NY 10301

Sunday, November 24 at 4:00 p.m.
Areté Venue & Gallery 
67 West St.
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Featuring:
Tracy Cowart, voice, harp
David McCormick, viele
Elena Mullins, voice, percussion
Sian Ricketts, voice, recorders, douçaines
Niccolo Seligmann, viele, psaltery, percussion

With guest artists:
Elliot Cole, composer; voice, guitar, harmonium
Ben Matus, voice, dulcian

Tickets:
Tickets range from $15 to $25 and can be purchased at http://5bmf.org/alkemie/. 

Program:

1. The first thing to remember
2. “Lordinges that are lef and dere”
3. “Sir, your honour beginnes to fall”
4. Tournament (fantasia on Tribum, que non abhorruit from the Robertsbridge Codex)
5. “King Arthur then spekes he” – “Of beautee and bountee”
6. Eventually, the truth comes out
7. The Queen laments that their love should end this way – “Wele away”
8. Lancelot springs up
9. “The queen by the fire stood”
10. This is the tragic stroke
11. “Alas” quod Lancelot, “Wo is me”
12. Lancelot fights Gawain
13. Mordred in England
14. “At night when Arthur was brought in bed”
15. Arthur’s men erupt
16. Arthur has one last instruction
17. “Broder woe is me”
18. “Abbess to you I knowleche here”
19. Flos regalis virginalis (from MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Corpus Christi College, 489)
20. Finale 

About The Artists

Alkemie exists to explore and share the life-affirming and alternative perspectives to be experienced in the sounds of centuries past. Comprised of five singer-performers playing over a dozen instruments (including vieles, harps, recorders, douçaines, and percussion), the ensemble has a particular interest in the porous boundaries between the court and folk music of the medieval period.?

Founded in 2013, Alkemie is based in Brooklyn and also performs nationally. In 2018-2019, Alkemie inaugurated an ongoing partnership with the Medieval Studies program at Fordham University, made their debut on the Music Before 1800 concert series in New York, and performed at the Amherst Early Music Festival (CT). Alkemie has also appeared on the Capitol Early Music Series (Washington, DC), Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS – New York City), Beacon Hill Concert Series (Stroudsburg, PA), Amherst Glebe Arts Response (AGAR – Amherst, VA), and the War Memorial Arts Initiative (Baltimore). In 2019-2020, Alkemie will also present a new program of high-medieval repertoire, including  15th-century balli, basses danses, and polyphony at Fordham University. 

?Alkemie’s members are also committed to and passionate about teaching medieval and Renaissance performance practice and history. Alkemie was in residence at Fairmont State University in 2016-2017, and the group has also presented workshops and educational outreach programs at the Capitol Early Music Series (VA), Ramaz High School (NY), and at Fordham University (NY). Alkemie’s members teach collegiate and amateur students at Case Western Reserve University (OH), Fordham University (NY), the Strathmore Arts Center (MD), Amherst Early Music Festival (CT), the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin (OH) and through the Early Music Access Project (VA).

Elliot Cole (b. 1984) is a composer and “charismatic contemporary bard” (The New York Times). He has performed his music with Grammy winners Roomful of Teeth, Grammy nominees A Far Cry and Metropolis Ensemble, as well as the Chicago Composers Orchestra, New Vintage Baroque, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and as a member of the book-club-band Oracle Hysterical. His percussion music has been performed by over 250 percussion ensembles all over the world. In 2017 he was invited by Talks at Google to share his unique approach to music through computer programming. He is on faculty at the The New School and Juilliard Evening Division, and is Program Director of Musicambia at Sing Sing, where he runs a music school for incarcerated men. His debut solo album Nightflower is “music of endless discovery” (A Closer Listen).

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Image of Alkemie at top of release courtesy of June Collmer