Sacrum+Profanum: Pilgrimage of Love
Wolodymyr Smishkewych, Yonit Lea Kosovske and Michelle L. O’Connor
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Sacred songs with erotic texts, troubadour music dedicated to religious themes, the symbiosis of courtly love and divine love: at the borderlines of the sacred and the profane are songs of extreme beauty that present a vision of the middle ages
far-removed from the image promoted by Hollywood, history books, or the limitations of our imagination. A musical pilgrimage that crosses the North Atlantic and that includes stops in Ireland, England, France, Germany, Spain and more, Sacrum+Profanum explores the intertwined history of ancestral pilgrimages, physical and allegorical, to love earthly and divine. |
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michelle l. o'connor
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Michelle L. O’Connor (Levy) has been performing on and exploring the possibilities of bowed string instruments for over 27 years. Ms. O’Connor studied medieval vielle with Shira Kammen, earned a Masters in Ritual Chant & Song from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (University of Limerick), and studied music at Brown University. She has performed internationally with an eclectic variety of ensembles, including Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI, Keltia Productions, and The Boston Camerata. She’s been a featured performer at the Vancouver Early Music Festival (2013) with Sequentia & The Elaine Adair Ensemble as well as at the Connecticut Early Music Festival (2010) with Istanpitta Early Music Ensemble, and at the New England Folk Festival 2013 (NEFFA) with her folk dance band, TriTonic. She enjoys playing fiddle for contra and English country dance camps in the woods as well as performing with Shira Kammen's Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to creating music on whitewater rafting trips.
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Yonit Kosovske
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Yonit Kosovske maintains an active and international career as a soloist and collaborative artist on repertoire spanning Early Music through Contemporary periods. Several of her more recent endeavours combine Yonit’s performances with her photography, including her Chrome Attic project and productions of Schubert’s song-cycle Winterreise. In 2011 Yonit moved from the United States to Ireland when she was appointed Lecturer of Music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, where she is Course Director of keyboard performance on the MA Classical Strings Performance programme. Yonit holds a Doctor of Music degree in Historical Keyboard Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a Master of Music in Harpsichord Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. Her book “Historical Harpsichord Technique, Developing La douceur du toucher” was published by Indiana University Press in 2011. Upon moving to Ireland Yonit has been the recipient of two Arts Council Travel & Training Awards facilitating a visit to the McNulty Fortepiano Workshop in the Czech Republic and participation in an advanced harpsichord masterclass at the Frescobaldi International Festival of Music in Rome, Italy. Yonit gratefully acknowledges the support of the Music Network Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Arts Council Ireland) for her purchase of an Italian harpsichord built by Colin Booth.
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Wolodymyr Smishkewych
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Singer, broadcaster, writer and filmmaker Wolodymyr “Vlad” Smishkewych has been a member of Sequentia Ensemble for Medieval Music and Theatre of Voices since 2000, performed with artists as diverse as Carlos Nuñez, Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI, and has been featured as soloist with The Harp Consort, Ars Nova Copenhagen, and Ensemble Dialogos. He has recorded for Sony/BMG, Harmonia Mundi-USA, Naxos, Norton, and Focus Records. A sought-after vocal pedagogue, he holds the Doctor of Music in Voice Performance from Indiana University, and has lectured and taught masterclasses and performance programs at universities in the United States, South America, Canada, and Europe. His passion for writing and creating audio and video about music, culture, and nature, brought him to Spain as a Fulbright Fellow during the first decade of the millennium. In 2011 he moved to Ireland to become director of the MA in Ritual Song and Chant at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where he taught until 2014.
He then returned to performing and to the world of audio broadcasting and film, in 2015 joining Ireland’s RTÉ lyric fm as well as REMA, the European Network for Early Music, as their Webradio Producer and Editor. Vlad is currently known to many RTÉ listeners as the host and researcher of Vox Nostra, lyric fm’s Sunday morning Early Music show. This summer will see the completion of his documentary film “Coming Full Circle”, a personal story of chasing the zanfona–Spain’s enigmatic traditional instrument–from its medieval heyday, to its near-demise, and finally its modern-day rebirth. Wolodymyr Smishkewych gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Music Network Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Arts Council Ireland) for his purchase of the sinfonia by Chris Allen used in today’s programme. wolodymyrsmishkewych.com comingfullcirclefilm.com |
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