Alkemie returns to the Jalopy stage in Brooklyn to perform music from their album A FINE COMPANION with opening sets by friends Sibyl and Smoke Ring— two groups who also embrace experimentation alongside historic music traditions.
ALKEMIE and its sister ensemble FREELANCE NUN collaborated to create A FINE COMPANION, a program of newly-composed settings of troubadour songs and texts, written in a dream-pop / shoegaze / psychedelic rock style for an amplified combination of medieval and new instruments. The texts of this project were chosen by Charles Mueller (composer) and the ensemble, with a focus on troubadour lyrics that expand or refute the standard tropes of chivalrous love by choosing poems from a feminine perspective, and by delving into the metaphysical and spiritual subsets of the genre. The unbridled sensuality of the arrangements creates space for a raw experience that inspires a visceral reaction in the listener. Mueller has used pre-existing troubadour music as a melodic and modal prompt on a number of pieces, with direct quotations organically morphing as if in an inspired game of telephone. With Tracy Cowart (voice, electric harps, percussion), Jim Hopkins (keyboards), Cameron LeCrone (percussion), Ben Matus (voice, medieval bagpipes), Charles Mueller (composer & technical director; electric guitar, electric bass) Niccolo Seligmann (vielles, scheitholt, gittern, psaltery), Elisa Sutherland (voice), Sian Ricketts (voice, recorders, douçaines), and Spiff Wiegand (percussion, guitar).
SIBYL is a folk duo from New York City formed by Chloe and Lily Holgate, two sisters who draw inspiration from the ancient tradition of the Sibyls—prophetic women of the ancient world who foretold the future through poetry and song. Blending their love for storytelling with their classical foundations, they refract traditional folk music through a contemporary, emotive light. Sibyl has performed on chamber music series around the northeast, at rock music venues around the city and many house concerts for small audiences—their favorite venues! Sibyl has been a resident artist at Avaloch Music Institute and in 2022 they were winners of WNYC’s Public Song Project.
SMOKE RING is a mixed voice barbershop and contemporary a cappella quartet based in New York, NY pushing the limits of what’s possible in barbershop with a lot of sass and sparkle. Made up of Rebecca Eckes (tenor), Stephanie “Tags” Taglianetti (lead), Gabriel Spector (bass), and Alexander Ronneberg (baritone), their humble beginnings began behind a curtain in Charlotte, NC, where they tucked away for some privacy to ring chords in a crowded room. They made things official in 2023, the same year they took first in Voices of Gotham’s Tin Pan Alley novice quartet contest. Their rapid ascent continued in 2024, when they became the first-ever mixed voice quartet to win the Mid-Atlantic District quartet competition and placed 9th at their debut at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2024 International quartet contest—making them the highest-ranked mixed voice quartet in the world.
This concert will be performed live in NYC on March 6, 2025 at the Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn. Doors at 6:30 p.m.; concert at 7:00 p.m. General admission is $30. For tickets and more information, please visit www.alkemie.org/events.
